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Re: Decline of the English language Very little. Maybe some ..
Miss Elaine Eos (Misc@*your-shoes*PlayNaked.com) 2004/11/30 14:23

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From: Miss Elaine Eos <Misc@*your-shoes*PlayNaked.com>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: Decline of the English language
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 13:23:42 -0800
Organization: Very little. Maybe some on weekends.
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In article <slrncqpb8u.p4c.chris@ccserver.keris.net>,
 Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net> wrote:

> On 30 Nov 2004 08:16:56 -0800, Richard R. Hershberger
>    <rrhersh@acme.com> wrote:
>
> > Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net> wrote in message
> > news:<slrncqkai3.445.chris@ccserver.keris.net>...
> >> On 28 Nov 2004 18:16:58 GMT, Mark Barratt
> >>    <mark.barratt@enternet.hu> wrote:
> >>
> >> > I think you need to distinguish between different levels of
> >> > formality, and different contexts in English. We all adjust our
> >> > English to some extent depending on who we're talking to,
> >>
> >> "to whom we are talking"
> >
> > You're kidding, right?
>
> Nope.  I really dislike trailing prepositions, I find them hard to
> parse, and mentally reword sentences which do them most of the time.
>
> (I do sometimes generate them when talking, and then have to reword them
> so that I understand what I said if I was listening...)

Fun with avoiding trailing prepositions:

I was once talking to my flight-instructor about flying somewhere,
finding your intended airport fogged-in, then having to return to your
original airport, and finding it fogged-in, also.  I started to say
something about "...the airport we are fogged-in to", but mentally
corrected it to "the airport to which we are fogged-in", which made me
balk until I evetually came up with "the airport into which we are
fogged", which still wasn't satisfactory.

It took me a while to realize that "fogged-in" is not a preposition but,
rather, an adjective, and a perfectly valid way to end a sentence.

Still, it had me going, for a while...

--
Please take off your shoes before arriving at my in-box.
I will not, no matter how "good" the deal, patronise any business which sends
unsolicited commercial e-mail or that advertises in discussion newsgroups.

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