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Re: FINAL PREPOSITIONS

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:22 pm
by anders
DUE TO MY BRAININJURY
Mine was due to a stroke. Is it possible for you to write your posts off line in for example MS Word? Then you will 1) have access to a spellchecker that might help in removing typos when intention and hands don't agree, 2) be able to, when ready, convert the lot to lower case using the F3 key. If sentence initial letters won't be capitalized, I suppose nobody would find it unusual. There are lots of posters on the 'net who don't use capitals. Insome cases, the reason might be that their native script makes no upper/lower case distinction.

There's a fascinating variety of "r" sounds. Being fairly familiar with the Swedish assortment, I find it easy to imitate the flapped Spanish r and its rolled rr, as well as the Parisian (or German) r. On r's, there is an interesting way of using them in a variety of Swedish: As initials, they almost resemble [o] or [w]; in other positions they are regular flapped IPA[r]'s.

And don't make any conclusions regarding my preferences, just because of my interest in the use of the r's.

When not writing in my capacity as a translator, I freely break many rules that I was taught. And I love starting a sentence with a conjunction, not solely to parahprase/joke with Old Testament translations, but because I think it often makes sense. And fortunately, we never had a rule like Safire's Fumblerule #49: "Never Use Prepositions to End Sentences With." But one should never generalize (9).

Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague. They're old hat, seek viable alternatives. (39)

Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:06 pm
by Perry
Anders,

I never knew that you had suffered a stroke. I will say that it's been a stroke of luck to have you as a friend; even if our contact has been limited to this, and the old, Agora.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:28 am
by anders
Thanks, Perry,

Careful spellchecking and time to spare saves me from displaying many of the sometimes quite funny typos occurring in my first post versions. It's a pencil-large infarction, and I hope it is obvious that it didn't hit the left brain and its language centres.

It's a great excuse anyway for odd behaviour and "creative" theories...

Back to Ending Sentences with Prepositions. . .A Joke

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:52 am
by Davekent
Reminded me of a joke :D I saw the other day:

A southern belle and a snooty New Yorker (insert your favorite city) were seated next to each other on a plane.

The southern belle, in her usual friendly manner, turns to the New Yorker and asks: "so where are y'all from?" To which the New Yorker replies, "from somewhere sophisticated enough to know that it's not correct to end a sentence with a preposition."

. . .To which the southern belle replies "Ok, in that case let me rephrase my question. . ."So where are ya'll from, BITCH."

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:02 pm
by Stargzer
From Dr. Goodword's article Will I be Arrested if I End a Sentence with a Preposition?

A Southerner stopped a stranger on the Harvard campus and asked, "Could you please tell me where the library is at?" The stranger responded, "Educated people never end their sentences with a preposition." The overly polite Southerner then apologetically repeated himself: "Could you please tell me where the library is at, you jerk?"

While editing the proof of one of his books, Winston Churchill spotted a sentence that had been clumsily rewritten by the editor to eliminate a preposition at the end. The elder statesman mocked the intention with a comment in the margin: "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."