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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 24 February 2009 - Volume 02<br>
===========================================</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br>
From: <span class="ep8xu"><span style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Brooks, Mark</span></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:mark.brooks@twc.state.tx.us">mark.brooks@twc.state.tx.us</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "Grammar" 2009.02.24 (01) [E]</span><br>
<br>
Gary asked
about “try to” and “try and.”</p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Yes, I hear it quite a bit. When I get pedantic, I
find “try and” annoying, because it doesn’t make much sense. If someone
says “I’ll try and fix that for you” to me it has a compound verb phrase that would
literally mean “I’ll try and I’ll fix that for you.” To me the verb “try”
semantically calls for “to” before it can mean anything. So, saying “I’ll
try to fix that for you” would sound better to me. However, I admit that
when someone says “try and” I know what they mean.</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Mark Brooks</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br>
----------<br>
<br>
From: <span class="ep8xu"><span style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148);">Kevin & Cheryl Caldwell</span></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:kevin.caldwell1963@verizon.net">kevin.caldwell1963@verizon.net</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "Grammar" 2009.02.24 (01) [E]</span><br>
<br>
<span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">“Try and” always annoys me. It seems like the
speaker is assuming success. “Try to” just makes more sense to me.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Kevin Caldwell</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Laurel</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">, Maryland,
USA</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br>
----------</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">From: <span class="ep8xu"><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);"><a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a></span></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "Grammar" 2009.02.24 (01) [E]</span><br>
<br>
from Heather Rendall <a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk" target="_blank">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Gary</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> was asking about "try to"
and "try and"</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I do love interesting questions that jolt you out of the
complacency youoften has about your own mother tongue and make you look closely
at something you normally take for granted.</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">You are quite right that although these can be alternatives
e.g. I'm going to try to explain / I'm going to try and explain: I always try
to explain it simply/ I always try and explain it simply but not all the time! You can't say *" I'm
trying and explain it as simply as I can" but you can say " I'm
trying to explain it as simply as I can". Nor can you get away with "
I tried and explained it to him" whereas " I tried to explain it to
him" is OK.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Can anyone explain why? What is happening here? Is it just
usage? Or is something very clever occuring deeply here?</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Heather</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">----------</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">From: R. F.
Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">sassisch@yahoo.com</span></a>><br>
Subject: Language diversity<br>
<br>
Good point, Heather.<br>
<br>
I assume that two or more progressive-tense verbs (-ing) are taken as indicating
simultaneous action; e.g.<br>
<br>
He’s sitting (and/while) watching the game.<br>
<br>
As opposed to …<br>
<br>
*He’s trying and watching the game.<br>
<br>
Well, it’s not <i>really</i> ungrammatical within certain contexts; e.g.<br>
<br>
- Do you think he can fix my watch?<br>
- He’s trying and/while watching the game as we speak.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, “try and …” may be analyzed as consecutive actions (“try and
then succeed to …”).<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron<br>
Seattle, USA <br></span></p>