#3 and #5 in particular give me fits!

These sentences actually remind me of a story in my family about an old woman in Nashville, Ark., in the 1920s.  My grandmother passed this to mom.  Maybe Trask thinks this might be accepted someday, too?

Old woman:  "If I knowed I coulda rid, I woulda went, but had I went, I couldn'tna et nuthin'.  But if I'd knowed you'da wanted me to came, I woulda went anyhow."

Erin Karl
Anaytical Grammar


From: Scott Catledge <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2011 8:22 PM
Subject: 'Bad' English

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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