Bill brings up a factor that I forgot when I made my post:
hypercorrection in students' formal writing. This is also what leads to
many inappropriate vocabulary choices, irritatingly frequent uses of the
word "aspect", use of "within" instead of "in", and use of "amongst"
(which is British) instead of "among". Not to mention lots of awkward
syntax.

Still, I chalk this, too, up to insufficient reading and writing of the
kind of English they are expected to produce in college. There would be
far fewer odd vocab choices if students read more widely in the "lower"
schools. The main way children learn vocabulary (and I would assume also
prepositional collocations, which also have to be memorized, not learned
by rule) is by being exposed to words (and phrases) in context. Children
learn thousands more words per year than they ever work on in their
vocab. lessons.

***************************************************
Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. 805-756-2184 ~ Dept. phone 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374 ~  E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
***************************************************

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