Winston's Quote and prepositions

Subject: Winston's Quote and prepositions
From: LaVonna Funkhouser <lffunkhouser -at- HALNET -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 1994 14:55:21 -0500

I saw Winston Churchill misquoted *twice* here today, so I had
to step in. Here is the quote:

"This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."

-- Winston Churchill
----------------------------
For further explanation, I submit the following
from _Engineered Writing, A Manual for Scientific, Technical,
and Business Writers (2nd ed)_ by Melba Jerry Murray and Hugh
Hay-Roe, pages 181-2:

"...a preposition is sometimes the best word to end a sentence with.
The Latin preposition was literally a pre-positioned word; in
accordance with its name and use, it had to come *before* something.
That's how we came by the 'rule' that you can't end a sentence with
a preposition. Nevertheless, modern English includes a long list of
such constructions:

What is that all about?
This is a manufacturer (whom) we can count on.
I don't know what it is for.
That's a deep subject (which) we're getting into.

People who tolerate pedantry are responsible for the kind of
foolishness that once appeared on an office bulletin board. The
company credit union was publicizing money to lend; below a
breezy picture of a hand in which a real penny was taped was
this stiffly 'correct' note:
'--And there's more from where that came!'"

LaVonna
lffunkhouser -at- halnet -dot- com


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