LL-L "Grammar" 2009.05.27 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 27 May 2009 - Volume 01
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
 Subject: Grammar

Hello, Lowlanders!

Here's something for you English teachers and other types of grammarians to
chew on.

This morning someone said to me, "The air conditioner is broke." Using
"broke" in the same sense as "broken" is not uncommon in the US. I believe
it goes back to the Southern States. (The speaker was African American, and
even in the north many African Americans retain a lot of Southern speech
habits.)

As probably most of you know, "broke" means "out of money" in most English
dialects around the world. I have never come across "broke" as also meaning
the same as "broken" except in the US. "Broken" is used otherwise; e.g. "The
air conditioner is *broken*, but I can't have it fixed because I'm *broke*".

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm wondering about the grammatical limitations of this.

I believe that "broke" is rarely if at all used to modify nouns; e.g.

The guy is *broke*.
*The *broke* guy (?)

(*)The air conditioner is *broke*.
The air conditioner is *broken*.
*The *broke* air conditioner (?)
The *broken* air conditioner

Similarly:

The sailor is *drunk*.
*The sailor is *drunken*. (?)
*What shall we do with the *drunk* sailor? (?)
What shall we do with the *drunken* sailor?

So it seems to me that the "extended" forms (with -en) at least *used to* be
used only to precede and thus modify nouns.

And ...

*The floor in the middle of the room is *sunk*. (?)
The floor in the middle of the room is *sunken*.
The floor in the middle of the room has *sunk*.  (verb)
*The floor in the middle of the room has *sunken*. (verb) (?)
*The room has a *sunk* floor.
The room has a *sunken* floor.

Any comments?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

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