Paul,

 

In some U.S. dialects, people "graduate from high school."  In others,
they "graduate high school." As linguists we can observe which dialects
use which expression, and we can observe which is more widely used. If
one usage is particularly widespread compared to the other, we might
call it "standard," but we can't say that either usage is "illogical" or
"wrong." 

 

As some of our fellow native New Yorkers might say, language doesn't
know from logical.

 

Cheers.

 

Dick Veit

 

________________________

 

Richard Veit

Department of English, UNCW

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul E. Doniger
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 8:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: usage question

 

I grew up in NYC, where just about everyone dropped the 'from' in
'graduate from'. I had to learn the usage in school before I realized it
was not possible (or illogical) for anyone to "graduate high school."

Paul D.


 

----- Original Message ----
From: dabro <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 2:53:00 PM
Subject: Re: usage question

Thank you Edmond for setting me straight . I've always thought that
"graduate college" was British usage and "graduate from" American. It's
only lately that I've been hearing "graduate high school" in American
English. As you correctly note, "graduate" is an IV. That's why Larry is
uncomfortable trying to form a passive sentence with it.

David Brown
ESL/EFL teacher
Long Beach, CA
USA 





--- On Sat 12/16, Edmond Wright < [log in to unmask] > wrote:

From: Edmond Wright [mailto: [log in to unmask]]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:40:03 +0000
Subject: Re: usage question

>
Geoff,

As an Englishman I judge that we English would never say 'graduate high
school', (1) for 'to graduate' is an intransitive verb in English
English,
and (2) it is only used of graduating from the UNIVERSITY. We do not
call
gaining one's 'GCSE' (General Certificate of Education -- at 16) or
'A-Level' (Advanced level GCSE -- at 18) 'graduating' at all. Most
secondary schools (only a minority of which are called 'high schools')
hold
what is called a 'Speech Day' later the following year, a day on which a
visiting dignitary formally presents the GCSE and A-Level certificates
and
any school prizes that are offered to the students of these two
different
ages, who have left school at different times. Thus Speech Days have
never
been referred to as performing 'graduation'.

Edmond


Dr. Edmond Wright
3 Boathouse Court
Trafalgar Road
Cambridge
CB4 1DU
England

Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~elw33
Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256

T! o join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding.
Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com
<http://www.myway.com/>  To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please
visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave
the list" 

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

 

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select
"Join or leave the list" 

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/