"WOKEN."
fib TEE EDITOR OP TEl "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—If I took in the Spectator for no other reason, the delightful article in your issue of October 9th on " Flowers in Flanders" would be amply sufficient. While thanking you for it, may I draw attention to the writer's use of a word which strikes me as of doubtful grammatical validity—that is " woken" as the past participle of the intransitive verb " to wake" P About thirty years ago I asked the opinion of some twenty scholars, and they were unanimous in holding the form "woken" to be wrong: but on other questions connected with the verbs "wake," "awake," " waken," "awaken," there was divergence. Since then it seems to me that the word "woken" has been coming into use. Can any of your readers throw light on the question P The strange fact is that only in the monosyllabic form of the word is any past participle of the intransitive verb used. That is, one might perhaps say "I have woken at seven o'clock for several mornings," but not "I have wakened," still less "atvokened." My belief is that all the four verbs (intransitive) are defective in the past participle; though why this should be so who can say, as there appears to be no such deficiency in the Anglo- Saxon or German forms P—I am, Sir, &c., E. LTTTELTON, Mint.
Previous page
