Eric is getting into a heated discussion about preposition stranding on his new blog. He and Geoff Pullum are going at it with Andrew Allison.
The guy seems like a total nutjob. Really the debate isn't about preposition stranding. It's about catching someone who is writing about language in a langauge error. And it seems to be standard operating procedure.
One thing that is interesting is that Geoff and Andrew agree that writers should be careful and write grammatically. What they disagree on is what is grammatical. I have to admit that I am not a careful writer. See for instance, my own "gotcha" comment from Stuie. Now Stuie is a close friend so, I'll take it from him.
But honestly, I just don't care. In my professional writing I have editors to take care of that stuff. And if someone is going to quibble over a typo in A FUCKING BLOG, then I don't want them reading my stuff anyway.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Careful writing
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2 comments:
"One thing that is interesting is that Geoff and Andrew agree that writers should be careful and write grammatically. What they disagree on is what is grammatical."
It's even worse than that! As Andrew makes clear near the end of his reply to Pullum (added after you posted this), he agrees that the position of the preposition is grammatical. The mind boggles. I wonder what reason he'll give for having written to "correct" me now.
His position is odd. He agrees that both are grammatical, but moving the preposition is more "felicitous". So it's an aesthetic call. I don't see why it would be, but aesthetics is weird.
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