Things we should do away with

Also, too:

My love for grammar will still be strong, after the Posts of Junkie are gooooooonne.

 

I would take this a little more seriously if you weren't claiming that you could improve Shakespeare's writing.

What you aren't getting is that language changes over time. The process may have slowed down, but it has not stopped. New words are added and others fade out of use. If enough people ignore and break a rule, then yes, it will eventually go away whether you like it or not. I'm not arguing in favor of these changes. I'm saying they do happen.

But you just keep clinging to those elementary-school grammar lessons no matter what. For the moment, you are still in the majority. Some of us will look at the English language for what it really is -- a living thing that changes over time.

 

Nobody is refusing to acknowledge that language changes over time.
I'm simply saying your reasoning with regard to prepositions and objects is illogical.

Also, with regard to the Shakespeare quote, it is written blank verse.
If you are writing newspaper copy in blank verse, more power to you. Break evey rule you want in order to fit the meter.

 

This discussion about prepositions should be done away with.

 

Well, that's the stupidest thing I'll read today.

Everyone gets that language changes over time. You're the one arguing the opposite, you just don't know it.

Elements of style change through simple usage. E-mail becomes email and onward and onward.

Elements of grammar -- particularly elements as foundational as subjects requiring verbs and prepositions requiring objects -- don't sway so easily.

And you're going to need a valid reason for changing them. So far, all you have offered is "language changes over time." You have utterly failed beyond that to offer reasoning WHY it's a good idea to allow prepositions without objects as part of standard written English. You have offered banalities and generalities. You have appealed to non-existent authority. But you have offered no argument.

My argument is simple. Prepositions require objects, and, thus, cannot come at the end of a sentence.

How would dangling prepositions improve our language, sir?

 

First you think you can rewrite Shakespeare. Now you can't carry on a conversation without being insulting.

And the best part is that you're the one who is failiing miserably at reading comprehension. I honestly don't give a damn if the rule changes or not. I'm saying that the language is changing and eventually the rules will go with it.

Please, try to do a better job of keeping up before the next time you question the intelligence of somebody else's post.

 

Can you drill down a little bit for me? I am happy to have the debate, but am not getting anything from you, here. I could argue your side for you, but that seems dull to me.

"I'm saying that the language is changing and eventually the rules will go with it."

All the rules? Just this one? Why this one and why not others? In what order? They'll all go away or be replaced by new ones? What sort of timeframe are you talking here?

Please be specific. Because otherwise, you're saying nothing at all.

EDIT: And please don't waste everyone's time repeating the same thing. Please. Either engage the subject or don't, but don't continue the banality, banality, generality, insult-couched-as-plea-for-civility turtle post syndrome that seems to have afflicted you. It bores me. I can't imagine I am alone.

 

Side ads that shrink the width of the page.

 

The Shakespeare issue is not really applicable. It's not prose. It's blank verse.
The rules of grammar, use and syntax are often set aside in favor of the rules of poetics.

Let's stay on topic here.

 

Why? Looks more like a newspaper with a shrunken page width.

 

Now?