try and and try to

[Frank Abate]

In a message dated 7/19/2000 2:48:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, AAllan at AOL.COM
writes:

> As usual, vast numbers of citations and complete historical commentary are
>  found in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. Much too long to
> copy
>  here, but it concludes with Fowler's (1926) comment, since when not much
>  seems to have changed: "It is an idiom that should not be discountenanced,
>  but used when it comes natural."
>  - Allan Metcalf

Good point, Allan, and I will check the M-W Usage.  But I have to add that
these citations provide a valuable but historical and very selective (because
chosen by a reader-editorial program) view of usage.  If we are trying to
determine with valid evidence what has been going on recently in some aspect
of the language, there is no real substitute for a large, balanced corpus of
contemporary language that can be searched to retrieve patterns of
collocation, displayed in concordance style.  With due respect for Fowler,
his 1926 comment represents his (useful) intuition about what was going on in
1926 and the years prior.  And the Merriam citations, the majority being
gathered pre-1961 (the date of the last major edition of the Unabridged),
would also mostly be dated.  They speak fairly reliably about the times when
they were collected, but help us not at all re what has been going on in the
last 40 years.

So I put the question: How best to judge *recent* shifts in usage?  I expect
some of the online resources can help.  But I sure wish we had that corpus.

Frank Abate