Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I know that they aren't perfect, but generally speaking the proofreading of PG texts is pretty good. I would tend to leave well alone except in cases which are obviously typos or scanning errors.
If you read a lot of 18th and 19th century stuff, as I do, you quickly realise that the English language is constantly changing, and that you really can't say that things are "correct" or "incorrect". They may be different to what we use, but they were usages which were in vogue at the time.
We actually do some pretty stupid things ourselves if you stop and think about it. Eg, we're happy to say:
I'm late, aren't I?
but if we expand the abbreviation and say:
I'm late, are not I?
then it's "wrong"
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Actually, the way I'd say it would be... "Am I late?"