dropping -ed in adjectives

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

I agree with Larry that 'shave ice' probably involves some morphological reanalysis, but for the record, consonant cluster simplification does occur before vowels in some varieties.  Surely we all remember Naughty by Nature's allusion to "a 5-letter word rhymin' with cleanest [klinIs] and meanest [minIs]" (Spoiler alert: it's 'penis').

-Matt Gordon

On May 16, 2012, at 3:21 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> On May 16, 2012, at 4:06 PM, Lisa Galvin wrote:
>
>> It's not just [st] clusters though. I have noticed it in Hawaii all over the place, in writing, and always with -ed adjectives; e.g. "shave ice".
>>                                                  Lisa GalvinSeattle USA
>>
>
> Right, I was over-hastily conflating two shifts, one a phonological simplification (the -[st] one, that doesn't apply just to participial adjectives) and the other a morphological reanalysis ("shave ice", since it occurs before a vowel, doesn't participate in that phonological cluster simplification or even an extension of it).  I assume that a lot of the "shave ice" speakers/writers wouldn't say/write "I shave a week ago" or "…when I've shave or showered", with a true past tense or past participle.  Presumably, as Amy et al. were suggesting, the adjectival forms (whether "ice tea" or "not prejudice/not bias against other races" or "shave ice") simply don't include the -ed morpheme for the relevant speakers.  Mea culpa.
>

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