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Subject:
From:
Jane Mairs <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:04:30 +0000
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I would give exactly the same answer as Dick, below.
I'm a New Yorker, if that's helpful.

Jane

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dick Veit
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2011 9:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 'Bad' English

Scott,

I doubt Trask is limiting "normal English grammar" to formal written English. I would say that #4,5, 7, 8, and 9 are already "normal" in the sense that they would not strike most speakers as odd when heard in a conversation. In #3, "between you and I" bugs the hell out of me, but I wouldn't want to bet against its becoming accepted even in writing in a few generations.

Sentences #1, 2, and 6 are unfamiliar to me. I assume they are from a regional dialect I have not encountered.

Dick
On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Scott Catledge <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Trask in his Why do Languages Change includes (p. 10) nine sentences that he considered would be or shortly become
accepted as "normal English grammar."  One of the sentences (number seven) is strictly conversational and unlikely
to be encountered in normal writing: I consider the other eight to have egregious errors.  What do you think?

(1)  I recommend you to take the job.
(2)  He demanded that the agitators were arrested.
(3)  This is just between you and I.
(4)  Due to the rain, we had to cancel the picnic.
(5)  This paper was written by Susie and myself.
(6)  Please come between eight a.m. to six p.m.
(7)  If he'd've played, we would have won.
(8)  He makes tedious jokes about mother-in-laws.
(9)  Having said that, there is no feasible alternative.

Scott Catledge
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