In praise of linguistic innovation

[Paul B. Gallagher]

John Dunn wrote:

> P.S. I am old enough to remember the days when Rugby Union
> commentators routinely referred to 'lines-out'; now only 'line-outs'
> is heard, and while someone is sure to leap in to prove me wrong,  I
> suspect that the only surviving English compound noun that adds the
> plural ending to the first part is 'procurator(s) fiscal'.

In baseball, a batter who flies out is said to have "flied out," not 
"flown out," where "fly" is treated as a verbalized noun instead of as a 
verb proper. Similarly, a batter who hits a home run is said to have 
"homered," not "homed" without the nominalizing suffix "-er." Sports has 
many examples where nominalized verbs are then treated as newly coined 
weak verbs in their own right. Compare "commissioned" in the general 
language, where the noun form "commission" from "commit" is treated as a 
newly coined weak verb with the structure [[[verb]noun]verb].

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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