Return of the minimal pairs

Larry Trask larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
Fri May 18 10:47:43 UTC 2001


--On Monday, May 14, 2001 10:21 pm -0400 pausyl at AOL.COM wrote:

[on the 'thigh'/'thy' question]

> I'm actually on Larry Trask's side (for the most part) in this discussion,
> but I assume that the argument from Robert Whiting's side would be best
> stated in terms of "closed-class" vs. "open-class" words; _thus_ would
> seem to be in the closed class.  _thy_ is surely English (think of the
> "Lord's Prayer"), but it's also a closed-class item.  And I would judge
> the Traskian point above about /oi/ never occurring in native English
> words, even if true, to be irrelevant to the discussion:  It seems to me
> that no amount of introspection would help an intelligent (but
> linguistically untrained) native speaker of English to decide that _boy_
> (the etymology of which is disputed) is a loanword; however, it seems
> plausible that that same speaker could uncover the fact that all words
> beginning with /D/ are "closed-class" or the like.

A very interesting point, but I wonder.  Naive native speakers of English
seem to have few if any intuitions about word classes.  Is there really any
evidence that such naive speakers are aware, or can readily become aware
without coaching, of the contrast between open and closed classes?

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)



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