Jackie (et al)
My current favourite phrase, insofar as it intrigues me, is 'flied out'. This has not, I have to admit, entered common parlance, but Stephen Pinker's defence of it, in The Language Instinct, is so vigorous that I reached the 'methinks the lady...' stage very soon.
After some consideration (and I haven't the book to hand, I must admit) I have come to the conclusion that Pinker's reasoning is fallacious. His claim is that 'to fly out' must be viewed as a compound formation, a verb phrase, if you will. Therefore, it would go against the deep structure of the grammar to construct it in the past tense as 'flew out'. Hence 'flied out'. But as far as I can see, nothing he says prefers 'flied out' over 'fly outed'. In fact, if it is a compound verb phrase, I can only see it going the way of similar (allegedly erroneous) formations like 'mother-in-laws'.
But what do I know. The only baseball game I ever saw was one in which Sammy Sosa (1999 it was) hit two home runs, and the Cubs overwhelmed their opponents, at Wrigley Field, 6-2. I still wear my Cubs baseball cap with pride, and from time to time see how far down the table they are. There's a familiar feeling to ones favourite team not doing too well, if one also supports England in cricket, and Tottenham Hotspur in football.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
