American English Official Grammar Reference Book

[Paul B. Gallagher]

William Ryan wrote:

> I hesitate to join in a discussion which arises from a query about US 
> usage but I would disagree slightly with Paul Gallagher's note on 
> 'different to/from/than insofar as it relates British English.

I see from your remarks and from others I have received off-list that my 
markings below were unclear. These are NOT ... MY ... REMARKS, they are 
quoted from the linked website as an example of its deficiencies, and I 
wish people would not attribute them to me.

I reproduce my original post below for those who are interested in doing 
their own review and investigation.

>> I hope the paper version is better than the one available online.
>>
>> I did a cursory review of several dozen entries and found them 
>> generally superficial and uninsightful, missing obvious points that 
>> would be of interest to the reader. Moreover, the purpose seemed more 
>> descriptive than prescriptive, and they often took the position that 
>> whatever a lot of people did was fine by them, even if a literate 
>> reader should know better.
>>
>> <http://www.bartleby.com/68/>
>>
>> Example:
>>
>> <http://www.bartleby.com/68/37/1837.html>
>> different from, different than, different to
>>
>> These three have been usage items for many years. All are Standard and 
>> have long been so (different to is limited to British English, 
>> however), but only different from seems never to meet objections: She 
>> is different from her mother in many ways. He feels different from the 
>> way he did yesterday. You look different from him. Different than has 
>> been much criticized by commentators but is nonetheless Standard at 
>> most levels except for some Edited English. Consider She looks 
>> different than [she did] yesterday. He’s different than me (some 
>> additional purist discomfort may arise here). You look different than 
>> he [him]. The problem lies in the assumption that than should be only 
>> a subordinating conjunction (requiring the pronouns that follow to be 
>> the nominative case subjects of their clauses), and not a preposition 
>> (requiring the pronouns that follow to be the objective case objects 
>> of the preposition). But Standard English does use than as both 
>> preposition and conjunction: She looks different than me is Standard 
>> and so is She looks different than I [do]. And with comparative forms 
>> of adjectives, than occurs with great frequency: She looks taller 
>> [older, better, thinner, etc.] than me [than I do]. Still, best advice 
>> for Formal and Oratorical levels: stick with different from.

[end of quote from online version of /The Cambridge Grammar of the 
English Language/ by Huddleston and Pullum]

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------