Archive for July, 2009

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Stranded P postings

July 7, 2009

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:

Contamination


Dryden’s Rule contaminating stranded to

ML, 8/21/08: Heaping of catmummies considered harmful:

Heaping of catmummies considered harmful


mostly about split infinitives, but with a bit on stranded P

GP, 4/25/09: Room for debate on Strunk and White:

Room For Debate on Strunk and White


GP response to Colin John re Burchfield’s entry on “preposition at end”

AZ, 5/6/09: Interesting sentences:

Interesting sentences


“not a good sentence with which to begin a story”

GP, 7/7/09: A “dumb copy editor” story from George Lakoff:

A “dumb copy editor” story from George Lakoff


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:

Room For Debate on Strunk and White


GP response to Colin John re Burchfield’s entry on “preposition at end”

AZ, 5/6/09: Interesting sentences:

Interesting sentences


“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:

A “dumb copy editor” story from George Lakoff


Metaphors We Live By

Posted in For reference | 4 Comments »

The spoken emoticon

July 6, 2009

Taking emoticons to a new level:

Posted in Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »

Emphatic nor

July 5, 2009

The text for today, from the excerpts (in the NYT yesterday) from Sarah Palin’s statement resigning as governor of Alaska:

I’ve never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title to do this — to make a difference, to help people.

My comment here is on the nor of nor anyone else. I would probably have used or myself, but Palin’s usage isn’t non-standard. But some commenters have had qualms about nor in cases like this.

(more…)

Posted in Negation, Semantics, Usage | 3 Comments »

To church marry, to civil marry

July 5, 2009

Tom Suozzi’s op-ed column “Why I Now Support Gay Marriage” a while back (NYT, 6/13/09) made me think some more about 2-p b-f verbs (two-part back-formed verbs), and in particular the possible 2-p b-f verbs to church marry and to civil marry.

(more…)

Posted in Back formation, Morphology | Leave a Comment »

The dingus

July 5, 2009

Mr. Toad contemplates the dingus:

Here’s an answer, from AbsoluteAstronomy.com:

A bread clip is a device used to hold plastic bags (such as the ones pre-sliced bread is commonly packaged in) closed. They are also commonly called bread tags, bread tabs, bread ties, or bread-bag clips. By sealing a bag more securely than tying or folding over its open end, the clip may preserve its contents longer. Sometimes the colour of the tag indicates the day on which it was baked.

There are two different types of bread clips – a more common one-piece plastic clip, and a more complex mechanical clip. (link)

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Periods and type size

July 4, 2009

A while back, I posted on Language Log about punctuation conventions in alphabetic abbreviations, noting that the New York Times tries to be scrupulous in the way it punctuates acronyms (which are pronounced as whole words: CAT scan) and initialisms (which are pronounced as sequences of letter names: MRI). NYT style insists on periods after each letter of an initialism (hence, M.R.I.), though with some exceptions (as in CBS), and on no periods at all in acronyms.

It seems that the New Yorker distinguishes these two types of abbreviations in the same way. But with an extra twist. From Hendrik Hertzberg’s “Talk of the Town” piece (“Stonewall Plus Forty”) in the July 6 & 13 issue (p. 24):

doma and D.A.D.T.–the Defense of Marriage Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”–remain as fully in force as they were on Election Day.

Here the initialism is in ordinary caps, but the acronym is in small caps. The distinction is made, as far as I can see, throughout the magazine. A nice further touch is that initialisms that are printed without periods are also in ordinary caps rather than small caps: MTV, CNBC.

Posted in Editing conventions | 5 Comments »

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