Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Not missing. Refuting. In English grammar, "technically correct" is just a synonym for "popular among grammarians". Nothing to do with whether it's proper English.
It's like split infinitives. Grammarians have been insisting for a century of two that splitting the infinitive is wrong in English. It isn't. Just as it's fine to end a sentence with a preposition if the sentence works that way.
It only remains for me to boldly state that these sort of simple-rule based criticisms of my language are something I'll no longer put up with. Any person who tells me I'm wrong can go [expletive deleted] themselves.
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Actually, you have it backwards. Grammarians (i.e., linguists who study grammar) have been pointing out that split infinitives have existed in English since the 1300's. It's just a couple of random writers of usage guides who have promoted the no-split-infinitive rule, with no justification at all. And even usage guides for the past 100 years have found no problem with ending sentences with prepositions, but this idea still persists among some people who took as gospel some bit of misinformation that an English teacher may have told them years ago.
I do find it very interesting sociologically, though.