One rule that must be added to the list is what Arnold Zwicky dubs PAP,
the Possessive Antecedent Prohibition.  This says that a pronoun cannot
have a possessive noun as its antecedent, so a sentence like

Oprah's book club selections told us a lot about her taste in reading.

would be considered incorrect and would have to be revised to something
like

Oprah told us a lot about her taste in reading by her book club
selections.

Zwicky traced PAP only as far back as the mid-1940s.  Before that it
doesn't show up in handbooks.  After that it spread like kudzu.

Herb

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anne Greer
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 8:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mythical Grammar "Rules"

Ben - 

I'm very curious about where this list came from?

Anne Greer

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