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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

98.0. "ending a sentence with preposit" by SPRITE::OSMAN () Wed Sep 18 1985 15:34

Can you give a sentence ENDING with five prepositions that makes sense ?

/eric

Answer next issue . . .
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
98.1NUHAVN::CANTORWed Sep 18 1985 18:319
As the little girl said to her father when he attempted to read her a story
she didn't like from the book he had just brought from downstairs,

     Daddy, why did you bring the book that I did not want to be read 
     to out of up for?

      1   2  3  4   5

Dave C.
98.2BEING::POSTPISCHILThu Sep 19 1985 08:089
Re .1:

Is "out" an adverb in that sentence?  In describing "out" as an adverb,
Merriam-Webster's _Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary_, 1976, provides several
examples, two of which are useful to us:  "went out into the garden" and "out to
lunch".


				-- edp 
98.3SPRITE::OSMANThu Sep 19 1985 09:476
Well, Cantor's sentence is indeed the one I was thinking of.

However, now that I consider Postpischel's question, I believe "out of" is
one preposition, not two, so the sentence only has four.

/eric
98.4VIKING::FLEISCHERThu Sep 19 1985 11:4210
re .0:

>	Can you give a sentence ENDING with five prepositions that makes sense ?

How does one define "make sense"?

I've read and heard a lot of awkward, ungrammatical, and even non-sentence
expressions that succeeded in conveying their message nevertheless.

Bob Fleischer
98.5NUHAVN::CANTORFri Sep 20 1985 01:3714
Re .2 and .3

Well, yes, 'out' is an adverb in that sentence, and I knew that when I posted
it, but I knew what Osman was looking for.  I'll bet that if you walk up
to any J. Random person and ask, "What part of speech is 'out?'", the random
will answer, "A preposition, of course."                          ^^^^^^^^^^
                                                                  Note clumsy,
Only picky people would say that it depends upon how it's used.   but gender-
                                                                  free construct
                                                                  to avoid use
                                                                  of offensive
                                                                  personal
                                                                  pronoun.
Dave C.
98.6Alternate form: AustraliaELMER::LEVITINSam LevitinMon Mar 03 1986 22:5011
	If you will permit other words that can appear as
	prepositions in other forms, the sentence can be made to
	appear as though it had 8 prepositions:

    Daddy, why did you bring the book that I did not want to be read 
    to out of about Down Under up for?

     1   2  3   4    5     6   7   8


	Sam
98.7No "out" prep in EuropeECCGY4::BARTAGabriel Barta/ESPRIT/Intl Eng/MunichMon Jun 23 1986 10:3520
East of the pond, the discussion about whether "out" is an adverb 
loses most of its point.  Over here, "out" is always an adverb; for
example, "out the window" is not English English at all.  The nearest 
is "outside" -- as in "outside the door".  In the U.S.A., both "out
the window" and "out of the window" exist; over here, only the latter.

Also, and here I'm being picky, as always (but that's what this
"conference" is for, right?):

In the original sentence and variants, "why" should always have been 
"what":

>   Daddy, why did you bring the book that I did not want to be read 
           ***
>   to out of about Down Under up for?
                                  ***

"Why ... for" doesn't make sense, but "what ... for" does.

Gabriel.
98.8For what...?FNYFS::WYNFORDSun Jul 06 1986 19:077
    And why does "what for" make more sense?
    
    ... because English and French are related.... 
    
    ... that is "pourquoi".
    
    Gavin
98.9SUPER7::GUTHRIEEschew obfuscationThu Sep 01 1988 23:592
    Maybe this the note which I should have copied my reply 11.67
    down to.					Nigel.