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John Neal wrote:
> Holy purple imacs, Macman, we've been slighted! (I think) Lar's quite
> obscure here...must go look up "innumerate" in this context. At least we
> mac users don't end our sentences with prepositions;-)
BTW, The preposition rule doesn't really exist. It's
up there with the one that says "never split infinitives,"
which doesn't really exist either. Bill Bryson wrote
a rather entertaining exposition on it in _Mother
Tongue_ that made a believer out of this grammar
purist and academic editor. Lexicographers in
the membership, feel free to object.
Y'see, those are stylistic proscriptions, not real
grammatical ones. If you've noticed certain ideas
that can't be expressed in English without either
an awkward construction or violating the above
"rules," you've seen the real proof. English is a
Germanic language, not a Romance one, and
thus shouldn't follow rules based on Latin. It
just doesn't work. Some Oxbridge rube thought
it would be a good idea to get Classical with the
vernacular, and voila! there we have it. I'll
bet s/he was from St. Antony's.
And this, I advance, is the real reason for
violence and hate in the world today. That
and Teletubbies.
LFB.
PS: Poetic licence justifies the above fragment,
though I'm not claiming to be Hemingway. I
don't own a cabin or a fishing boat. (My name
is Elmer Fudd, I own a mansion and a yacht...)
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