grammatically speaking...

[Joanne M. Despres]

"Donate me this" does sound better to me, but I'm imagining it
delivered in a self-consciously playful way, somewhat along the
lines of the Elizabethan construction "X me no Xs" (e.g., "king me
no kings, grief me no griefs," etc.).  I guess the effect of the verbal
play I'm imagining turns on the clever economy of the apparent
archaism (to which the brevity of the direct object contributes).  If
the sentence were delivered without playful intent, though, it
probably wouldn't sound any better to me than "donate me this
lamp."

Joanne

On 10 Jan 2003, at 7:06, Douglas Bigham wrote:

> Riddle me this, Batman....
>
> Just out of curiosity, does anyone get a *better* reading with a pronoun
> instead of a noun phrase?  For example: "donate me this lamp" sounds a lot
> worse than (while holding said lamp, saying) "donate me this".  Anyone share
> this opinion?
>
> Just wondering....
>
> -dsb
> Douglas S. Bigham
> University of Texas - Austin