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#21096 03/05/01 05:18 PM
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>I have noticed, over the past ten or fifteen years, that this alternative construction has been carried over (usually, but not always in a jocular vein) to other words. So, one is neither "frighted" nor "frightened", but "frit". Which, I suppose, makes the agent of afright a "fritter"

I'm always applying this concept to "freak out", i.e. "She fruck out when she discovered that her boyfriend hadn't fed the cat for 3 days."

So would that make the person responsible for freaking someone out a "frucker"?


#21097 03/05/01 06:26 PM
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You have lighted a fire under me. But I will be delighted by its warmth. Just now a mockingbird alighted on the telephone wire outside me window. All the birds here are flighted. Not an ostrich in sight, I plight my troth.

Dear wwh: I should learn to make my posts clearer. Because the weirdest part is that I admit to the use of delighted, alighted, flighted (but that's an adjective). But, for some strange reason, my mouth and brain resist just "lighted" when "lit" is "correct" in my mind! Why oh why?


#21098 03/05/01 06:27 PM
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We're all presuming that both words are a preterite for the verb "light". This may be a personal idiosyncracy, but I feel there is a difference between "light" meaning illumine, illuminate and meaning kindle, set fire to. To me, 'lighted' goes with the former, 'lit' with the latter. I would never say, "She lighted the fire before dark." But I would say, "The fire lit up the room enough to read by," which contradicts what I just finished saying, so it's not hard and fast. I would say, "He lit the lamp and lighted up the room." (Lighting a lamp, even an electric one, is the same as setting fire to a candle- or lampwick, as any orthodox Jew could tell you.)


#21099 03/06/01 01:36 AM
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I am surprised...I don't think I would ever say "lighted". I didn't even know it was a "real word". The exclusive use of "lit" must be some strange Canadian thing...or western Canadian thing...I don't really know. [shrug]

Don't feel left out. "Lighted" just sounds wrong to my ears also, and you know where I came from. (Even if delighted, etc. doesn't give me fits)

Ali

#21100 03/06/01 05:19 AM
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You can add me to the litter of exclusive litters.

Bingley


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#21101 03/06/01 02:21 PM
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I think the duplication is just part of a tendency to drop the vowel change to indicate tense change and use "-ed" instead."I seed him" instead of "I saw him".


#21102 03/07/01 09:46 PM
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...just one of the cats!


#21103 03/08/01 02:59 AM
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Québec seems to be on same footing as rest of Canada. Never is the word lighted used, only lit.

Ha, it is probably the only time all provinces agree on something. (inside joke for Canadians)

#21104 03/08/01 11:29 AM
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I think this might be one of those cases where English has distinct punctative vs durative in the past tense: The house burnt down last week, but it burned all night. I dreamt of it on Monday, but turned in my sleep while I dreamed. Where there are two past forms, the one that takes longer to say (-d rather than -t) tends to be used to indicate on-going activity, while the shorter is used for the action regarded as an event at a single time.

I hadn't thought of lit vs lighted in this way, but although I normally say 'lit', when I try to make a sentence using 'lighted' it seems to be durative: Jackie's arrival lit up the room, but her presence lighted up the room. A light switch lit it up, a lamp lighted it up.


#21105 03/08/01 02:10 PM
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Dear NicholasW: I wish I knew enough to have said that.


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