Subject:
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Re: Who James Isn't (was:Re: New Castle Sucks (so far...)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Wed, 29 Dec 1999 17:33:51 GMT
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Reply-To:
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JOHNNEAL@stopspamUSWEST.NET
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Viewed:
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1431 times
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Mr L F Braun wrote:
> Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> > In lugnet.off-topic.fun, John Neal writes:
> > > James Brown wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > You don't know that I'm mortal, you only have precedent to work with.
> > >
> > > I wonder....would an immortal end a sentence with a preposition?
> >
> > Quite. That, quoting Churchill, is something "up with which I will not put"...
>
> The "rule" about prepositions ending sentences is an archaic Victorianism, an
> effort to "Latinize" English. Since English is a Germanic language, and German has
> prepositions at the end of sentences all of the time (separable prefixes and all
> that), as does Dutch, there's no reason why we can't do it too. The rule about "no
> split infinitives" is from the same stupid era of haughty stylistics, not to
> mention just dumb, because once you "split" an infinitive, it's not an infinitive
> anymore--"to" becomes a different part of speech.
It basically boils down to this: if you give in on prepositions, then before you know
it, we will be saying "ain't", "chilrun", and "me and her went". It's about
preserving the language from the illiterates, who are legion. Don't get me started on
Ebonics...
-John
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