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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:14 am

"Dangling prepositions are a grammatical abomination up with which I shall not put." - Winston Churchill
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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static
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Post by static » Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:28 am

If you would simply wear longer shorts, we all wouldn't have to look at your dangling preposition.

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Mr Blotto
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Post by Mr Blotto » Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:34 am

static wrote:If you would simply wear longer shorts, we all wouldn't have to look at your dangling preposition.
Literally laughed out loud at my desk on that one =D> =D> =D>

Funny stuff!
1978 Sage Green Westy - 2.0 FI - SOLD WITH 109887 miles :-(

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:08 pm

Mr Blotto wrote:
static wrote:If you would simply wear longer shorts, we all wouldn't have to look at your dangling preposition.
Literally laughed out loud at my desk on that one =D> =D> =D>

Funny stuff!

Haw haw haw haw . . . . . . . haw
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Cindy
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Post by Cindy » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:23 am

getting back to the intelligence topic--interesting thing happened to me last night. when my class let out i drove over to the grocery store and ran into my professor in the cat food aisle. class had been dismissed for only 15 minutes but he had already discarded his suit and tie for sweats and sneakers and i hardly recognized him. and i thought--what if i didnt know him? would i be able to tell that hes one of the brightest minds in the history profession? a leading scholar on the racial and religious history of the south? of course not. he looked liked a night-shift kinko's desk clerk/cashier. or a macdonalds assistant manager. you really cant judge a book by its cover. and it goes both ways. the "idiot" who cant get your change right could very well be a brilliant artist. you never know.

it was almost endearing--the way he couldnt wait to get out of those clothes. i respected him twice as much when i saw that.

cindy
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don't.” ― Stephen King, The Stand

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Post by Lanval » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:29 pm

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say you ought to follow time-worn rules, but sometimes time-worn rules got that way for a reason.

In this case, there's a practical reason for not ending sentences with a preposition ~ prepositions are usually used to indicated movement or direction; for example:

through the tunnel
to the car
by the beach
etc.


So to end a sentence with a preposition is often to suggest a movement to that remains eternally incomplete.

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Post by glasseye » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:34 pm

Lanval wrote:
So to end a sentence with a preposition is often to suggest a movement to that remains eternally incomplete.
So, in other words, a preposition is a bad word to end a sentence with. :cheers:
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Cindy
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Post by Cindy » Sat Oct 11, 2008 5:04 am

Lanval wrote:Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say you ought to follow time-worn rules, but sometimes time-worn rules got that way for a reason.

In this case, there's a practical reason for not ending sentences with a preposition ~ prepositions are usually used to indicated movement or direction; for example:

through the tunnel
to the car
by the beach
etc.


So to end a sentence with a preposition is often to suggest a movement to that remains eternally incomplete.
right--i still follow the rule myself. but i dont respect the reasoning behind it as much as i used to. if i have time today, ill find that passage in bryson's book and quote it here.

cindy
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don't.” ― Stephen King, The Stand

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Post by Birdibus » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:55 am

byproxy wrote: as much as i used to.
Some idioms work SO well with their dangling prepositions. :sunny:
71 bus, 74 westy

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Post by Lanval » Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:11 pm

glasseye wrote:
Lanval wrote:
So to end a sentence with a preposition is often to suggest a movement to that remains eternally incomplete.
So, in other words, a preposition is a bad word to end a sentence with. :cheers:
Heh... the problem that people run into is that some sentences need to end with a preposition ~ for example this one:

What did you step on?

Oh sure, you could say "On what did you step?", but it's just a small, well, step to speaking in Shakespearean brogue at that point...

Colino: Sirrah, prithee ~ wherefore endest thee thine speech thus?

Lanvalio: Verily, in jest. The gods deemeth it ever abominous, though they spoke't in amphibologies mysterious; I err, tho ~ t'were possible divers ways a poem cast forth; but never, nay never wouldst I an preposition end with.

Colino: Halt thy blathering, knave. Peace, sir, peace.

:joker:

Lanval

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Birdibus
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Post by Birdibus » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:03 pm

Hey, I seem to have confused my participles with my prepositions:
Dangling Participles
A participle is a verb-form that ends in -ing. It is called "dangling" when it doesn't agree with its subject.

While walking down the road, a tree caught Xena's attention.

The subject of the sentence is "a tree," but it is not the tree that is doing the walking, therefore the participle "walking" is dangling. To correct the sentence, write:

While walking down the road, Xena noticed a tree

or

A tree caught Xena's attention as she walked down the road.

Remember that not all words that end in -ing are participles (e.g. thing) and some participles are gerunds depending on context. (A gerund is a participle that is functioning as a noun, e.g. "My favorite activity is sleeping.")


Ending a Sentence with a Preposition
Contrary to popular belief, there is no agreement on this one among English professionals. In general, especially if your audience is strict about rules, don't end a sentence with a preposition. Prepositions are little words that indicate position and such: with, at, by, from, etc. In general a preposition should come before ("pre"-position) the noun it modifies. So you should change

That's the warrior I must talk to

to

That's the warrior to whom I must talk.

However, if too many "to whom"s and "of which"s are making your writing unnecessarily clumsy, go ahead and end with the preposition, especially in informal writing. Remember the famous example (credited to Winston Churchill) that goes: "This is the kind of thing up with which I will not put!"
71 bus, 74 westy

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Sun Oct 12, 2008 2:25 pm

Lanval wrote: Colino: Sirrah, prithee ~ wherefore endest thee thine speech thus?

Lanvalio: Verily, in jest. The gods deemeth it ever abominous, though they spoke't in amphibologies mysterious; I err, tho ~ t'were possible divers ways a poem cast forth; but never, nay never wouldst I an preposition end with.

Colino: Halt thy blathering, knave. Peace, sir, peace.

:joker:

Lanval
That is NOT what I said. I said, "thou hast not only a front suspension imprecise with rudely recalcitrant reaction to road irregularity, but a windshield of opaque resemblance to the dusty and abandoned language we once held in such regard."
Colinario :blackeye:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Sylvester
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Post by Sylvester » Sun Oct 12, 2008 2:45 pm

Aaarrhhhggg! Shakespeare, I cannot handle it. It must be a mind that enjoys poetry, that can tolerate that babble. I find I can deliberate with somewhat educated individuals, but last night I was asked to be the announcer for my son's football game. I couldn't do it, I know I would sounds like an idiot. "Third and five at the fifty yard line, if the quarterback can just hold onto the ball this time!" However, just how would Shakespeare do announcing a football game?
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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Post by jblair630 » Sun Oct 12, 2008 5:49 pm

I don't know about Shakespeare but Andy Griffith did a good job back in the early 50's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNxLxTZHKM8
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That's relativity." -- Albert Einstein

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Cindy
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Post by Cindy » Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:09 am

Sylvester wrote:Aaarrhhhggg! Shakespeare, I cannot handle it. It must be a mind that enjoys poetry, that can tolerate that babble. I find I can deliberate with somewhat educated individuals, but last night I was asked to be the announcer for my son's football game. I couldn't do it, I know I would sounds like an idiot. "Third and five at the fifty yard line, if the quarterback can just hold onto the ball this time!" However, just how would Shakespeare do announcing a football game?

i used to feel the same way until i saw a live performance of a shakespeare play. when you hear it, out loud and at length, it starts to sound like music.

cindy
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don't.” ― Stephen King, The Stand

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