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All these past participles require have or -'ve
A) I was a little too fine tuned when I specified sibilant. Most if not all consonants will do the trick. This was common in Latin; nobody rails against such "errors" as Republic for res publica or irregular for inregular. It is also a feature of Arabic, the article al becomes as before words starting with s, am before words starting with m etc.
2) I'm speaking of the historical development of this process. This isn't something that happened overnight or even in one generation. The 've slowly got softer and softer till the youngsters learning the language didn't hear it at all so they didn't incorporate it into the grammar they developed from listening to their elders.
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how do you choose when to let your pedantry loose, and which hairs to split?
I only fight for or against usages when I know I'm right.
Seriously, this one started out as a tweak of the noses of prescriptivists who will invoke understood in one context and totally ignore it in others.
All seriousness aside, I *do believe that we reinvent grammar every generation. I also believe that some people are less capable than others of relearning, in a formal setting, the speech patterns they developed when learning the language on their own.
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I('ve) eaten that.
I('ve) eaten that.
Seeking the rules for linguistic evolution won't help here. The deterioration goes far beyond that - if anything one hears "I et"...
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what moves you to "tweak the nose of" prescriptivism in some posts, and defend it ... in others?
Hey, I just like arguing about inconsequential matters.
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old hand
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old hand
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Hey, I just like arguing about inconsequential matters.
Hey, I believe you.
Hey, I'll remind you.
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While I agree with Faldage that "I seen" is not exactly an uncommon usage, I do not agree with his take on the development of that usage. "I seen" has been around in America for a long time - I remember reading it in quotes written in the 19thC. "I seen" and "I been" seem to have more origins in African-American and poor Southern speech patterns than anything else I can think of. At least, that's where you see them used the most. You very, very rarely hear it, even from kids, in Zild. It is, however, part of the verbal shorthand used by some brogues here in England. I don't think that anyone believes that it is a "valid" grammatical usage, however. Like everything else in English, it seems to be negotiable. The interesting thing is, always, that even when we make the most diabolical blunders in the use of the language, we seem to be able to understand each other on the surface. Someone saying "I seen that movie" may make me grit my teeth, but I understand what it is that the ignorant sod is saying. And when it comes from socio-economic or ethnical/cultural groups where it is an accepted redefinition of English, it doesn't even seem that offensive. None of this applies to you lot, my friends! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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even when we make the most diabolical blunders in the use of the language, we seem to be able to understand each other on the surface.
Which pretty much limns my take on opposing or defending linguistic change. There is no confusion about meaning when someone says, "I seen that movie arready." If someone (mis)uses, e.g., the word virulent, on the other hand, there can be much confusion (Wah, Cuhnel Beauregawd, you are just so strong and virulent!). But we learn to live with it and, if a distinction in meaning is required we will develop other means to express it.
"I seen" and "I been" seem to have more origins in African-American and poor Southern speech patterns
And it is exactly these people who will have the least opportunity to relearn formally the grammar they develop informally.
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old hand
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> I am....."half-asleep."
As opposed to "half-awake"???????
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