tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27807460.post5270247870005809392..comments2024-03-22T13:57:42.835-04:00Comments on Wishydig: An technicality at worstWishydighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06141057866370676641noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27807460.post-51600573358032607602007-10-23T18:46:00.000-04:002007-10-23T18:46:00.000-04:00Excellent. Epenthesis as a roundabout refusal to d...Excellent. Epenthesis as a roundabout refusal to delete.<BR/><BR/>I love the layered of process.Wishydighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06141057866370676641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27807460.post-21997259381297023342007-10-23T17:21:00.000-04:002007-10-23T17:21:00.000-04:00Hi Michael, thanks for the careful reading. You're...Hi Michael, thanks for the careful reading. You're absolutely right that the <I>a/an</I> alternation doesn't represent epenthesis historically, but I was thinking of the synchronic picture rather than the diachronic one. I find some justification for referring to the /n/ in <I>an</I> as epenthetic in Theo Vennemann's "Rule Inversion" (<A HREF="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V6H-469M3TP-3N&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F1972&_rdoc=25&_fmt=summary&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%235815%231972%23999709999%23326596%23FLP%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=5815&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=39&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=618386aeabe27d4417211effe4bf5daf" REL="nofollow"><I>Lingua</I></A>, Vol. 29, 1972), which specifically discusses the <I>a/an</I> alternation: <I>"The most elementary type of rule inversion is the conversion of a rule of conditioned consonant loss into a rule of consonant epenthesis in the environment which was historically exempted from loss, generalized to similar environments in which no consonants were lost (if such environments exist)."</I>Ben Zimmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02927962158447853691noreply@blogger.com