"babysit" zero preterite

[Laurence Horn]

On Jun 25, 2012, at 2:15 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:

> 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

Nice one.  This seems to fit the pattern of zero-form as compromise (the two-mongoose solution, as speculated upon earlier re the "mora" plural):  Is it "...that I babysat" or "...that I babysitted"?  Better split the difference (better than splitting the baby): "...that I babysit".

LH
>
> 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.
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>>
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>
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