"babysit" zero preterite

[Neal Whitman]

My latest sighting of a monosyllabic root with a lax vowel nucleus and a dental coda having a base form for past tense surprised me. In the latest episode of Risk, Elna Baker talks about her job as a nanny a few years back, referring to "the two-and-a-half-year-old that I babysit." I'd've thought the robust preserved past tense "sat" would've prevented "babysit" from joining "bet," "put," "set," etc.

Neal

On Jun 25, 2012, at 1:34 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Shaven"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 6/25/2012 10:52 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> Maybe so, but there are more than a few hits for "clean shavin'"
>> (with or without apostrophe), suggesting a reanalysis from a perhaps
>> moribund perfect participle.
>
> But are these "the clean shavin' Gilette Atra", or similar?
>
> Joel
>
>> Google in fact, while offering "about 52,600 results" for "clean
>> shavin", wonders forlornly whether I perhaps meant "clean
>> shaven".  The latter gets over 4 million raw ghits, some for a 1990s
>> movie "Clean, Shaven".
>>
>> LH
>>
>> On Jun 25, 2012, at 8:39 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>> "Clean-shaved," OTOH, sounds crazy..
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 8:35 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject:      Re: "Shaven"
>>>>
>>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> shaven : shaved. Every once in a while I?ll get all shaven & shorn for
>>>> something important, like the preacher who married the maiden all forlorn,
>>>> who milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that kicked the dog,
>> that chased
>>>> the cat, that killed the rat, that ate the malt, that lay in the house of
>>>> pancakes.
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org