LL-L "Morphology" 2004.10.03 (05) [E]

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From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Morphology

Tom wrote:

>I googled "Amn't I". It's amazing how many rational discussions have gone
on about the expression in listservs. I didn't see one which used preceptive
grammar arguments against using this tag. The discussion here was less
linguistically tolerant, despite the usual high level of input.<

What is "preceptive grammar"? I've only found two live references on
AltaVista and Google and they both seem to relate to mediaeval ideas about
writing.

The only rational argument against using this tag is that it isn't standard
English.

Why do people spend so much time on these things? I suggest that the only
interesting things about "amn't I" are

1. How did the form come about?
2. Why don't people understand that the only interesting about it is "How
did the form come about"?

John Feather CS johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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