Enclosed is a comment extracted from another list. I would
appreciate the comments of other grammarians on the two questions posed.
1. (But do you really
think "you" in phrases like "if you please" can be called a
direct object? This construction is at least 500 years old.
2. (Would "if you
like" be the same?)
Scott Catledge
Professor Emeritus
history & languages
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/