Conversate and basically

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Has a paper on grammatical synesthesia ever been written?

dInIs

>Conversate gets 668 hits on Alta Vista.
>
>It leaves a yucky taste in my mouth, though.
>
>Benjamin Barrett
>gogaku at ix.netcom.com
>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  Behalf Of Duane Campbell
>>  Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 4:09 PM
>>
>>  In the Ashcroft hearings Judge White used the word "conversate" for
>>  converse. I didn't think much about it -- a slip brought on by the
>>  pressures of lights, cameras and obstreperous Senators. But since then I
>>  have heard it twice more on C-SPAN call ins. (I don't have much of a
>>  life.) Is this a mistake or growing usage?

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736