bath vs. bathe

[Dennis R. Preston]

The determination of which "semantically depleted" verb to choose is
complex, dialect-to-dialect and language-to-language. (Surely you
remember your surprise in Spanish or German 101 at learning that you
"have" hunger! You should have taken Polish.) "Take" does not obey a
rule in which the following noun (the source of the semantic
"content") refers necessarily to something "brief." (I took a long
walk; I took Carol to be my wife, etc...). We don't "seize" (or
"gobble" or other semantically full verbs) if the usual activity of
the noun (dare I say "unmarked") activity is referred to.

Of course, there are idiomatic exceptions (making things even more
complicated). You can "catch" a cold (although you can also 'get' and
even 'take' one in some dialects), but in these cases I would argue
for a temporary semantic depletion of the usually semantically full
verbs involved. This process is difficult historically, because we
tend to add these depletions to the list of "senses" of the verbs. A
lexicographical difficulty if I ever saw one.

dInIs

>On Thu, 22 Aug 2002, yvonne frasure wrote:
>
>#'I need to bath' is very common in the southeastern Kentucky region,
>#as well as in West Virginia.  Here is a consideration...."I need to
>#take a bath" ......Where will you be taking it too?  Take:  To lay
>#hold of;capture; catch.  2) To get possession of; seize 3) to obtain
>#by purchase 4)assume; appose upon oneself.........etc..etc.  Why not
>#say I need to seize a bath?  possess a bath?
>
>Because we don't say "seize a breath", "seize a walk", "seize a nap", or
>"seize a coffee break". "Take" is the verb that we use for these nouns
>referring to brief activities.
>
>-- Mark A. Mandel

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736