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From: "John Davis" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Prepositions - what to do
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 22:55:09 -0800
References: <000801c51e84$69e30850$6402a8c0@Moms17>


Always gleefully willing to jump on the opportunity to stir a pot <vbg>,
I gleaned the following examples from "The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of
English Usage", that show some uses of the preposition at the end of the
sentence at various points in history:

"Thou hast no speculation in those eyes which thou dost glare with"
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth, 1606)

"The bodies that those souls were frighted from." (Ben Jonson, Catiline,
1611)

"Now," thought he, "I see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous were
driven back by." (John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, 1678)

"Fanny could with difficulty give the smile that was here asked for."
(Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814)

"These are some of the placid blessings I promised myself the enjoyment
of." (Samuel Johnson, The Idler, 1758)

"He had enough money to settle down on." (James Joyce, Dubliners, 1914)

"The University is one most people have heard of (Robert Frost, letter,
1936)

The folks at Merriam-Webster claim that the "cherished superstition"
regarding ending prepositions that found its way into several standard
school texts in the early 19th century began with one John Dryden, a
17th century English poet, playwright and essayist in a 1672 piece of
criticism entitled, "Defence of the Epilogue." It is thought that Dryden
developed the idea because he composed some of his pieces in Latin and
then translated them into English, "apparently for greater elegance or
propriety of expression." Merriam-Webster's states that "recent
commentators . . . are unanimous in their rejection of the notion that
ending a sentence with a preposition is an error or and offense against
propriety."

It appears that the final preposition is something we should learn to
live with, and certainly be tolerant of, for it is not something that we
will soon get away from, rather it is a usage we may delight in, and
something we may capitalize on, and give credence to, for whatever it
may be good for.

John, smugly listening to the muted rumble of a hundred thousand English
teachers turning over in their graves.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Teresa Elliott" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 9:30 AM
Subject: RE: [TMG] Prepositions - what to do


> Isn't that ending a sentence with a preposition? Tsk, tsk.
>
> Teresa Ghee Elliott
> Rutherford Co., TN cemeteries:
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rutherfordcemetery/
> TMG sentences:
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rutherfordcemetery/TMG.html
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Excalibur131 [mailto:]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 11:24 AM
> To:
> Subject: [TMG] Prepositions - what to do
> SNIPPED
> , at the beginning of, and at the end of.
> Tom
>
>
>
>
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