1. If you live in NYC and like weird theater, go see Deep Trance Behavior in Potatoland. It's a little like Twin Peaks meets Rene Magritte. Great show to take a first date to and then pretend you do that kind of thing all the time. Just in case you're suspicious of my taste, the Times liked it also.
2. You know how some words double the final consonant when you add an ending? (e.g. run--running) But some don't? (walk--walking) I figured out the rule: if it ends consonant-vowel-consonant, you double the final consonant; if not you don't. Of course, I was really proud of myself for figuring this out and announced it triumphantly to my class. I'm sorry to say they weren't impressed.
The ending consonant is doubled in order to preserve the short vowel sound. Compare: running and pruning. Compare: funny and puny.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, this blog entry should have been canceled before it traveled through the Internet to my screen. Now it's too late: If it were carved into clay, it would be hardened by now. You gambited your expertise and lost; now your credibility as a linguist is leveled. :-)
ReplyDelete(It's only doubled if the last syllable is consonant-vowel-consonant and is stressed.)
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ReplyDeleteI think it's great that a teacher like you can model intelligent and creative thinking, not to mention active curiosity, by putting out a theory like this. Whether the theory turns out to be correct is really secondary.
ReplyDelete- - Rich Accetta-Evans (Brooklyn Quaker)
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have the link for anjiaoshi's grammar blog? I want to subscribe.
ReplyDeletegrammer is 4 nerdz"
ReplyDeleteHm. If I start one, will Elizabeth Vicary come by and leave comments correcting my chess? Because I could really use it.
ReplyDeleteFYI:
ReplyDeletecanceled , traveled, leveled are the U.S. spellings and are incorrect in the U.K.