Autism/AS and accidentally regularizing irregular verbs.

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Woodpeace
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05 Nov 2009, 5:05 am

I love irregular verbs in English. They make the language more interesting.



mgran
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05 Nov 2009, 5:40 am

I have just realised that there is one English verb which I always regularise in speech, and it is the inverted first person singular. Most people say "aren't I", which I just can't stand, so I say, "amn't I" instead. I think that's it.



Ambivalence
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05 Nov 2009, 5:56 am

Mmm, yes, you'd never see "are not I" or "are I not" written down, but you might see "am not I" or even better "am I not". It really should be "amn't", wonder how it got to be "aren't"?

(edit)

D'oh, I'm an idiot, forget the rubbish that was in this place earlier. :lol: I forget the existence of "I'm". :lol:

This then is my second attempt:

We can say:

I am
He/She/It is
You/They/We are

I'm
He/She/It's
You/They/We're

and we can say:

I am not
He/She/It is not
You/They/We are not

I'm not - different words being contracted, though!
He/She/It isn't
You/They/We aren't

But only:

Am I not?
Isn't He/She/It?
Aren't You/They/We?

There's a gap where amn't should go which we fill for some reason with "aren't". :?


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Who_Am_I
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05 Nov 2009, 6:57 am

My linguistics books say that "ain't" was once used for "am not", and that it was once a perfectly acceptable construction and used by educated people.

Another thing that these books say is that the whole "don't end sentences with a preposition" thingy is because of early prescriptive grammarians attempting to impose the rules of Latin grammar onto English.

Answering the original post: I have never had any problems with irregular verbs. I like them, and any other irregularities of English, as they make the language more interesting.


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Authentic cadence: V-I
Plagal cadence: IV-I
Deceptive cadence: V- ANYTHING BUT I ! !! !
Beethoven cadence: V-I-V-I-V-V-V-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I
-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I! I! I! I I I