More on De- and Un-

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:32 PM -0400 4/4/04, Michael Adams wrote:
>Edna Andrews usefully wrote about the constraints surrounding both
>de- and un- in "American Speech" (1986, pp. 221-232)

In my own work on these prefixes in a 1988 paper, "Morphology,
Pragmatics, and the Un-Verb" (mentioned earlier in Ron's excerpts
from my postings), I found not only the Andrews paper useful but also
an earlier (1979) paper in AS by our own Natalie Maynor.

>, but I have challenged some of these in "Slayer Slang."  I would be
>grateful indeed for comments on the argument for such constraints as
>it develops -- it is, really, a register-busting issue.

Can you summarize your findings or cite any particularly juicy data, Michael?

Larry Horn