Will English become even further morphologically simplified?

???   Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:22 pm GMT
Do you think English will lose its few existing morphological features as a result of being the lingua franca?

Will the 's' on the third person present verb disappear?

Will irregular past tense verbs become more regular?

Will the continuous tense disappear?

Will the past become expressed almost entirely by either the simple or perfect?
???   Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:25 pm GMT
Oh, and will the future be expressed only by 'will' or 'going to', excluding any present continuous forms such as 'I'm going to the cinema tonight' as well?
Guest   Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:26 pm GMT
Plural marker -s should dissapear. if you think it's absolutely unnecessary. it's clear when nouns are plural without any -s ending.
Guest   Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:30 pm GMT
<<Will irregular past tense verbs become more regular?>>

I already hear (other) native speakers constantly make errors in this area. They often don't make the past tense more regular, though. For instance, I often hear things like "I drunk" instead of "I drank" or "I've drank" instead of "I've drunk". They are just mixing up the forms rather than regularizing them in those cases.
guezzzt   Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:57 pm GMT
<<
I already hear (other) native speakers constantly make errors in this area. They often don't make the past tense more regular, though. For instance, I often hear things like "I drunk" instead of "I drank" or "I've drank" instead of "I've drunk". They are just mixing up the forms rather than regularizing them in those cases. >>


Haha that's true! The thing is we know which verbs are supposed to be irregular, so regularising it sounds wrong, but we also can't remember which is the correct irregular form, so we just pick one at random.