Past Participles, old and new ...

Now just in case you're hoping that the title refers to something subtle, nostalgic or allegorical, I should make it clear that this really is a rant about grammar; not a very popular subject for a blog, though obviously it's one with which every writer should have at least a nodding acquaintance. Banging on about 'correct grammar' nowadays inevitably invites accusations of pedantry -'Language evolves,' we are constantly being reminded, 'get over it!' So what if a BBC announcer enthuses about multiple stadiums, and a national newspaper tends to blithely spilit infinitives and misplace it's apostrophes? Language is a living, breathing entity, and the English language, a mish-mash of Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and French with no declensions to speak of and no hard-and-fast rules that any foreign student can grasp, has no grammatical high ground to take!

Well, I try, I really do try to assimilate the evolution of the English language. I remember once, years ago, reading The Little Mermaid (Disney version, I'm afraid) to one of my daughters and coming acoss the sentence 'she dove into the choppy waters'. 'Dove', I queried? Is that what passes for 'dived' in American - as in 'he snuck out from behind the rocks and dove into the pond'? Well apparently yes, both 'dove' and 'snuck' have been in American and Canadian usage for well over a century, and are becoming increasingly common in UK parlance too. How interesting, I thought, and why not? After all, the past participle of 'drive' is 'drove', and we don't say 'seeked', we say – er, sought (do you know, only the other day a Brighton University representative assured me that he'd 'sort' clarification over a community relations issue).

So why am I now getting all hot and bothered by reading, in good books written by authors of calibre, that a light 'shined', a victim 'beseeched', an athlete 'strived' and a car 'speeded up the drive'? Why do I want to insist that the correct words are 'shone', 'besought', 'strove' and 'sped'? And come to that, why do I sigh whenever I hear that a defendant 'pleaded guilty' to a charge and feel nostalgic for the days when they 'pled'? On seeking clarification from the oracle that is Merriam-Webster, I learn that 'speeded' and 'beseeched' are both perfectly fine alternatives to the older usage on both sides of the pond, that 'pleaded' is actually the correct form in common language though 'pled' still crops up occasionally in legalese, and that 'shined' - well, actually that was interesting; apparently it should, strictly speaking, be reserved for the verb meaning 'to cause to gleam by polishing' – eg 'the sun shone while I shined my shoes'. Now that's something I never knew before. 'Strived' though - 'strived' is incorrect. It should, apparently, still be 'strove'. Hurrah!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I really do have to go and get a life ...