use(d) to

[Peter A. McGraw]

--On Thursday, August 14, 2003, Peter McGraw wrote:

>  >Grammatically, "didn't use to" seems perfectly straightforward to
>  >me, since one would also say, "I didn't use the washrag", whereas
>  >"didn't used to" seems problematical, since one would not say *"I
>  >didn't used the washrag."
>

And Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> replied:

> this, however, is problematic.  it assumes that speakers connect
> the verb in [just@] (conveying tense/aspect semantics) with the
> ordinary verb [juz] 'employ', which seems pretty dubious to me.
> (maybe some do, but it's a pretty big leap.)


I agree it would be dubious to assume that speakers connect [just@] with
[juz] while using it in the normal flow of speech.  When they stop and
wonder how to write it, though, it seems a pretty big leap to me to imagine
that it would never occur them to refer to the "ordinary" [juz] for
guidance.  It's pretty transparent that [just@] must have developed from
[juz].

Peter Mc.

*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************