"increasing" use of variable TRY AND

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

My memory is that TRY AND is also in Poutsma and Jespersen, as I recall. So,
yes, TRY AND as an alternative for TRY TO has been around for a long time.
What interested me was the assertion of <Dfcoye at AOL.COM> that the use of TRY
AND is "increasing". How does one know that it is "increasing"? For that
matter, how do we know that one or another pronunciation of EITHER is
"increasing" (also one of Dfcoye's assertions). Does anyone have any hard
empirical data for either hypothesis?

Or is this just one more example of the so-often expressed naive notion that
the English language is going to the dogs--that every linguistic variant that
one disfavors is evidence of "increasing" degeneration?


In a message dated 7/18/2000 10:20:54 PM, nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU writes:

<< It's not. I don't remember the details, but I'm fairly sure Visser looks at
this construction. Of course, I don't HAVE Visser. >>