Aspect and Variant Inflection in English Verbs

Abstract

A small set of English verbs may take the inflections -ed or -t for preterit and past participle. The hypothesis that forms in divided usage are not randomly distributed was tested on groups of British and American subjects by presenting these forms in ‘forced-choice’ selection tests. Despite the well-known difference between American and British usage in preferring one or the other of the inflections, the -t forms were predominantly selected in participial use and for preterits in contexts suggestive of non-durative (‘effective’) aspect.

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