30cfe980   
   XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: robban1@bigpond.com   
      
   On 1/09/11 12:29 PM, Peter Brooks wrote:   
   > On Aug 31, 7:55 pm, derek  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> I was watching the first DVD of "Sherlock" last night and was struck   
   >> by something that has been drilled into me for decades.  Sherlock   
   >> corrects a man who says that without Sherlock's help he'll be "hung".   
   >> Sherlock pretentiously points out that it's unlikely, though there's a   
   >> good chance of being "hanged".   
   >>   
   > Pretentiously? What was pretentious about that? What was Sherlock   
   > pretending to, that wasn't, in your opinion, the case?   
   >   
   > Might you be wanting to say 'pedagogically' or 'helpfully'?   
   >   
   > Or were, you, perhaps, wanting to say 'pedantically'? If so, what do   
   > you think was pedantic about Sherlock's correction?   
      
   My own view is that it is a very strange quirk of English and that it is   
   probably relatively modern. Using logic (which never fails to be   
   inappropriate in linguistic matters), there ought to be two verbs:   
      
   Transitive: hang, hanged, have hanged   
   Intransitive: hang, hung, have hangen or hungen.   
      
   Since this is not the case and since we no longer hang people, the whole   
   thing is slightly absurd. I suspect the Victorians.   
      
   --   
   Robert Bannister   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)