disappearing prepositions

Mon Oct 4 02:09:43 UTC 2004

On Sep 28, 2004, at 3:19 PM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

> ...And I have noticed what seems to me a wide and possibly spreading
> tendency
> to drop the particles from particle verbs. To add to the above example
> ["pass away", which might well postdate "pass" in the relevant sense]:
>  - I used to hang out with my friends. My son just hangs.
>  - "wiped out" 'exhausted, very tired' > "wiped"
>  - "pissed off" 'angry' > "pissed" (creating transoceanic confusion
> with UK
> colloquialism for 'drunk')

i suspect that there are separate histories here.  but a tendency
towards clipping would be perfectly reasonable.

arnold