Stranded P postings

Another inventory of postings on Language Log and this blog, this time on stranded prepositions.

As before, I’ve omitted postings where the subject phenomenon is mentioned only in passing.

ML, 10/10/03: Quoi ce-qu’elle a parlé about?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000032.html
stranded Ps in Canadian French

ML, 4/11/04: An internet pilgrim’s guide to stranded prepositions:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000743.html

BP, 6/19/04: What for:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001084.html
chains of stranded Ps

GP, 12/8/04: A Churchill story up with which I will no longer put:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001702.html

BZ (posted by GP), 12/12/04: A misattribution no longer to be put up with:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001715.html

ML, 4/25/05: Better a spectacular blunder than a hint of unseemliness:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002095.html
omitting stranded P

AZ, 5/17/05: Ending with a preposition:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002168.html
a stranded P cartoon

ML, 5/21/05: More on Canadian French preposition stranding:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002187.html

AZ, 6/2/05: Who are you writing to?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002219.html
a stranded P cartoon

AZ, 6/21/05: The CliffsNotes version:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002254.html
stranded P in the CliffsNotes grammar manual

ML, 6/29/05: If we look, simply, to the French:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002273.html
French as a model for English P use

ML, 6/30/05: The French aren’t really against:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002274.html
stranded Ps in (European) French

AZ, 7/4/05: That’s American:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002291.html
increase in stranding as an aspect of “colloquialization”

AZ, 7/5/05: Avoidance:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002292.html
including avoiding stranded P

AZ, 7/7/05: Get ’em while they’re young:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002298.html
Ruth Heller on prepositions, for children

GP, 9/20/05: New Yorker search engine stark staring mad:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002485.html
“I’m sorry I couldn’t find that for which you were looking.”

BZ, 11/27/05: Churchill vs. editorial nonsense:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002670.html

AZ, 11/4/06: Grammar on the gay beat:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003734.html
P stranding in Genre magazine

AZ, 11/23/06: Let’s meet at mine:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003811.html
stranding vs. fronting

AZ, 3/3/07: Self-incorrection:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004266.html
“fixing” stranded prepositions

ML, 5/1/07: Hot Dryden-on-Jonson action:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004454.html

ML, 5/3/07: A note of dignity or austerity:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004464.html
combination of stranded and fronted P

ML, 5/4/07: Back to the future, redundant preposition department:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004465.html
combination of stranded and fronted P

ML, 5/14/07: A phenomenon in which I’m starting to believe in:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004493.html
combination of stranded and fronted P

GP, 5/15/07: Could preposition doubling be headed our way?:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004498.html
combination of stranded and fronted P

ML, 5/19/07: Re-doubled prepositions:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004510.html
combination of stranded and fronted P

ML, 8/25/07: Prepositional anxiety and Voldemort’s wand:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004854.html
incorrection of stranded P

AZ, 5/10/08: Contamination:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=130
Dryden’s Rule contaminating stranded to

ML, 8/21/08: Heaping of catmummies considered harmful:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=514
mostly about split infinitives, but with a bit on stranded P

GP, 4/25/09: Room for debate on Strunk and White:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1369
GP response to Colin John re Burchfield’s entry on “preposition at end”

AZ, 5/6/09: Interesting sentences:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1372
“not a good sentence with which to begin a story”

GP, 7/7/09: A “dumb copy editor” story from George Lakoff:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1561
Metaphors We Live By

Grammarville


“Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”

GP, 4/25/09: Room for debate on Strunk and White:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1369
GP response to Colin John re Burchfield’s entry on “preposition at end”

AZ, 5/6/09: Interesting sentences:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1372
“not a good sentence with which to begin a story”

Grammarville


“Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”

GP, 7/7/09: A “dumb copy editor” story from George Lakoff:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1561
Metaphors We Live By

4 Responses to “Stranded P postings”

  1. Bill Johnstone Says:

    Hi

    Can you please explain ‘stranded prepositions’ as used in passive constructions.

  2. arnoldzwicky Says:

    To Bill Johnstone: I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking about, but there are (at least) three ways prepositions can get involved in passive constructions.

    The first way is in “agentive passives”, in which the notional subject of the verb is marked by the preposition by: “The play was written by Shakespeare”. Interrogative and relative constructions based on such passives can have either of two forms: (1) “By whom was the play written?”, “the author by whom the play was written” [fronted P]; (2) “Who(m) was the play written by?”, “the author who(m) the play was written by” [stranded P].

    A second way is ordinary passives in which the verb has a PP associated with it (agentive passives are a special case of this one): “The book was dedicated to the author’s parents”. Interrogative and relative constructions based on such passives usually can have the P either fronted or stranded: “To whom was the book dedicated?” [fronted], “Who(m) was the book dedicated to?” [stranded]. (For some PPs, the fronted variants are remarkably awkward, to the point of unacceptability. There is some discussion of these cases in section 7.4.1 of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.)

    A third way is in “prepositional passives”, in which the grammatical subject of the passive represents the notional object of a preposition (rather than a verb): “The bed has never been slept in”. Here, only stranded Ps are possible.

  3. where … at « Arnold Zwicky's Blog Says:

    […] blog have taken on this subject repeatedly (there’s an inventory of postings through mid-2009 here, and there have been more since then). There’s really not a lot to be said on the usage […]

  4. Damn you, Dryden! « Arnold Zwicky's Blog Says:

    […] blog have taken on this subject repeatedly (there’s an inventory of postings through mid-2009 here, and there have been more since then). There’s really not a lot to be said on the usage advice, […]

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