Linguistic rebellion!

[Arcdelad]

Language, especially the english language, is constantly in flux...rules change, but they don't seem to get altered in the great and sacred book of "How to Properly Use English Grammar"..

One such example i noticed today was ENDING a sentence with a preposition...by all the traditional prescriptions of grammar, this is a huge no-no.

(as a reminder, a preposition is basically anything you can "do" to an object -visualize a tree - you can go AROUND the tree, you can go THROUGH the tree, OVER the tree, etc etc...those are all prepositions)

However.....times...dey are a changin!!! Note the following sentences:

- Dying is one thing trismus is an expert AT.
- Eating cake at 2:00 AM is something Goss does a lot OF.
- The only benefit of Cyron is keeping him AROUND.

A grammarian will note that in each of those examples the object of the preposition and its own describer are missing (describers are things like "a" "an" "the").

However, these sentences all make sense, and most probably wouldnt get marked up by even the most anal of college professors.........becuase language is changing...therefore...we all need to break this rule...so....everyone use some preps out of place today! thatll..um...damn the man!

[Zario]

Arc, is language your hobby or profession?  I've seen you post several things like this so I was wondering what angle your're coming from.

[JohnnieRat]

I always thought the rule was "The bee flew _______ the bottle" to determine what a preposition was. In which case, the bee flew through the bottle cannot be a preposition, as bees cannot gain the proper airspeed to actually puncture through the bottle and exit the other side. Therefore: Through is no longer a preposition.

[Arcdelad]

its both!!! kind of hehehe....i love writing and playing with sentence structures...i think ive always experimented with the playfulness of language since i was a wee lad...writing is my favorite creative outlet (hence the numerous posts here and my blog entries)...

moving from arizona to chicago to philadelphia in the span of 14 months has been GREAT for my wife's skyrocketing career, but it hasnt done wonders for me progressing in my professional lit career thats why im jokeying a desk as an estimator for a green building general contractor right now...

I also have a failed book that was picked up for publication, sat around on their dusty shelves for a long time, then dropped.....so....round two will come someday im sure in that arena

[Arcdelad]

lol JR....you cant take the excercise literally from a physics standpoint hehehe...i assure you through is a preposition

[Nasanna]

In middle school I learned these rules of riting good:

   1.  Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
   2. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
   3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
   4. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
   5. Employ the vernacular.
   6. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
   7. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
   8. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
   9. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
  10. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
  11. One should never generalize.
  12. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
  13. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
  14. Do not be redundant. Do not use more words than necessary. It's highly superfluous. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
  15. Be more or less specific.
  16. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
  17. One-word sentences? Eliminate. No sentence fragments.
  18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
  19. The passive voice is to be avoided.
  20. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
  21. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
  22. Who needs rhetorical questions?
  23. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
  24. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
  25. Verbs have to agree with their subjects.
  26. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
  27. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
  28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times. Resist hyperbole. Not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
  29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
  30. Proofread carefully to see if you left any words out of your


(found them  http://www.engsc.ac.uk/tcr/jokes/oldjokes.asp so I didn't have to find my old notes)

[Trismus]

through is a preposition, although english was one of my worst classes so *shrug*. I've written hundreds (if not thousands at this point) of analytical essays and one things I've learned is that it is more a matter of who is reading then what the rules are. A prime example of this is the use of the word "data".

Many people say "This data is amazing." However, "These data are amazing" is the correct way to say it: the word is plural. This leads me to the question, what's a single unit of data? a Date?


-Tris


P.S. Survival notwithstanding, I'm a fantastic warrior. 

[Nasanna]

"The word data is the plural of Latin datum."  We have lots of discussions on this in science/engineering classes. Most people don't really care or know the difference.  But this shows that even Latin is changing these days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data

[Arcdelad]

http://forum.twilightonalex.com/index.php?action=viewblog;u=69;id=33

[khader]

data is a 'special' word that is both plural and singular.  Using it correctly is another story.

The data is amazing.  This statement is correct in the context of data referring to a body of facts or information.

The data are amazing.  This statement is correct in the context of referring to individual facts or statistics.  However the statement sounds weird and is more like the contrived examples found in most textbooks.

Grammar and the spoken language have always been miles apart.  Standards of grammar are moving towards spoken language which has its good points and bad points.  Unfortunately most older text books don't reflect this change in  cultural norms at this point but I'm sure they'll catch up sooner or later.

[Kothnok]

just like sheep!

[Airtotem]

In before the link to the video where the Fword gets used as every part of a sentence gets put up.

In school, they made us memorise prepositions so we would know which words we should not end sentences with.

aboard  about  above across  after  against  along  amid  among  around   at  because  before  behind  below  beneath  beside  between  beyond  but  by  despite  down  during  except-for  for  in-front-of  in-spite-of  instead-of  in-back-of       those were all off the top of my head, but I forgot the prepositions starting with L through Z

[Gutboy]

"This is the sort of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."

-- Winston Churchill, supposedly

[Nixphire]

[fiere redfern]

Beat me to it, Nix... I was just thinking of that strip =P