Participial "slow + -n"

[William Salmon]

> I too am from Texas, but the form doesn't sound very normal to me (thence the posting!).
>
> I can imagine, say, "is not slowing down" sounding like "is not slown down"--but that's grammatically a different >structure from "has slown down."
> --Charlie

Google has some interesting examples of "slown up", though not as many as for "slown down", and they don't seem to be all from Texas :-)

I also learned since we talked that the factory has slown up production due to some parts coming from abroad with some restrictions.

The same vitriolic spew that has gushed the past few years hasn't slown up a single bit.

And as far as the Deca I was considering it before- My weight gain has slown up recently, but I am getting stronger and stronger.

Things have slown up here! Will have news this week

Will


> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of William Salmon [wsalmon1 at INTERCHANGE.UBC.CA]
> Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 11:07 AM
>
>
> > During a UFC cage-fighting bout last night (yes, I sometimes watch that!), the excited ring-side (or octagon-side) announcer remarked that one of the combatants "has slown down considerably."  Perhaps the speaker stumbled into an inadvertent analogy with "show" or the like--or else an archaic form bubbled to the surface structure.
> >
> > The phrase "slown down" garners some 40,000 Google hits, many of them obvious typos--but some not, >including this tiny item in UrbanDictionary.com (s.v. "slown"):  "a word used to describe the act of slowing >down. I guess it is a Texas thing."
>
>
> I'm from Texas, and that usage sounds pretty normal to me :-)
>
> WS
>
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