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Archiver > TMG > 2005-03 > 1109709427


From: "Darrell A. Martin" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Prepositions - what to do
Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 20:37:07 +0000
References: <103.5c335225.2f5612ec@aol.com><6.2.0.14.0.20050301144759.04300e68@pop.compuserve.com>
In-Reply-To: <6.2.0.14.0.20050301144759.04300e68@pop.compuserve.com>


At 07:48 PM 3/1/2005, Karla Huebner wrote:
>Which of you will be barking? (I won't ask about the down-the-streetness of the dog.)
>
>Karla Huebner
>
>At 01:48 PM 3/1/2005, you wrote:
>>
>>Ending a sentence with a preposition might be common usage, but my English
>>grammar teachers are about to rise up out of their graves. And I think every
>>teacher's union in the country just might have a collective heart
>>attack...grin.
>>
>>Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm about to walk the dog down the street barking
>>loudly. <VBG>
>>
>>Jon Raymond

Hi, Jon:

Your English teachers might be rising up out of their graves, but I have an excellent supply of crosses, wooden stakes, and thesauri at hand. And if they want to argue grammar before they are smitten, I will gladly and confidently oblige them in English (back to Elizabethan -- my Anglo-Saxon is very rusty); will accommodate them reluctantly as to Latin; and will venture into Spanish or Greek, but only if threatened with a dangling participle....

Many of the best and oldest English grammarians readily conceded that the prepositional position rule was imposed on English by those whose only grammatical training was in the ancient classics. For Latin, the rule accurately describes the way the language works. For English, it does not. Unfortunately, in the first half of the 20th Century, the educators of teachers -- and perforce their pupils -- lost touch with the classics and, not coincidentally, began to rely on the application of formulae rather than on understanding the material at hand.

Darrell

P.S. I had a grand uncle who lived on Barking Loudly Street for a while.


Darrell A. Martin
a native Vermonter currently in exile in Illinois
http://www.darrell-martin.net/genealogy/


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