Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging

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#181017 - 12/19/08 11:06 AM Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging
SweetLoretta stranger Registered: 12/19/08 Posts: 3	I have a question concerning the past tense of text (as in text messaging). Text used to be a noun, but now it seems to be gaining currency as a verb, and there seems to be a debate over the past tense. I personally hate "texted" -- it hurts my ear. One wouldn't do the same thing with "I sent a letter" (lettered). I would say "I sent a text last night," but it seems that even some dictionaries are jumping on board with "texted." What is correct? Thank you so much -- my friend and I are trying to figure this out! Lori
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#181019 - 12/19/08 12:14 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: SweetLoretta]
zmjezhd Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 2475 Loc: R'lyeh	It's a rather common phenomenon in English for words to change their lexical category, either by affixing (class > classify) or zero morphology (e.g., love was originally just a noun < Old English lufu but now is a verb, too). That having been said, what's wrong with text as a verb? It fills a need and eschews periphrasis. For what's it worth, texted gets 2.42M ghits.
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#181020 - 12/19/08 12:38 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: zmjezhd]
SweetLoretta stranger Registered: 12/19/08 Posts: 3	Yes, zmjezhd, I see your point. I guess it's a logical leap (painful ear aside!)... L
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#181022 - 12/19/08 01:13 PM Re: Past Tense of Text [Re: SweetLoretta]
zmjezhd Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 2475 Loc: R'lyeh	(painful ear aside!) Over the years, I've noticed the reasons people give for the unacceptability of certain words, usages, meanings, etc. Grammatical, logical, semantic, and syntactic infelicities are the usual suspects, but to mind the only one I give pause to is aesthetic considerations in matters of usage. Take the oblique case of the pronoun who, whom. Its demise was mentioned by no less an English usage authority than HW Fowler back towards the beginning of the late, great, previous century, but people are still arguing about it and corrected one another, sometimes erroneously, here almost a hundred years later. I am personally not much bothered by folks saying who did he marry, while still managing to use the oblique form of who in written and spoken English. Though I have been a writer for a couple of decades now, I stop short of correcting people, except in a professional capacity as an editor (a job I do not relish and seldom do). I find that to do so in public just leads to ill feelings all around and that it is dangerous in private communication.
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#181023 - 12/19/08 01:15 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: SweetLoretta]
LukeJavan8 old hand Registered: 06/23/08 Posts: 1007 Loc: Frozenwastesistan	And how would one stop using it as a verb even if one could, albeit hurting the ears. "Uncomfortability" hurts my ears, e.g. when discomfort is more pleasing and correct, yet tell that to anyone in the psychiatric/therapy interviews done in the media. _________________________ ----please, draw me a sheep----
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#181026 - 12/19/08 01:27 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: LukeJavan8]
Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/24/02 Posts: 6690 Loc: Vermont	how about texd? flows a bit better to my ear, and we don't have enough words that have xd in them.
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#181033 - 12/19/08 01:51 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
LukeJavan8 old hand Registered: 06/23/08 Posts: 1007 Loc: Frozenwastesistan	Makes a lot of sense to me. I cannot think of a single word with and xd in it. I remember when Esso wanted a new name, they researched all the world's languages with a double XX before coming up with Exxon, with the double XX found only in Maltese, but no word similar to Exxon. So I'll buy into it! _________________________ ----please, draw me a sheep----
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#181037 - 12/19/08 01:56 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
SweetLoretta stranger Registered: 12/19/08 Posts: 3	I like this solution! L
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#181038 - 12/19/08 02:06 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: SweetLoretta]
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 12531	Originally Posted By: SweetLoretta there seems to be a debate over the past tense. Lori New vebs entering the English language, by whatever route, are almost always weak/regular, i.e., forming the past tense by adding -ed. Even new verbs that are identical to irregular verbs in their present and infinitival uses will be regular if they are formed from some other part of speech. E.g., the baseball term fly out, which is flied out in the past tense because the fly is from the fly of fly ball. Even a verb like input, which is from the noun, is often seen as inputted in the past tense.
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#181039 - 12/19/08 02:10 PM Re: Past Tense of Text (as in text messaging [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 9577 Loc: this too shall pass	>we don't have enough words that have xd in them. well, there's taxdeferred and ex-dividend just for starters.
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