disappearing prepositions

[Mark A. Mandel]

On Sep 26, 2004, at 11:26 AM, Robert Wachal wrote:

> When I was growing up a loooong time ago, if someone died, it was said
> that they "passed away". Now everyone seems to say, "they passed".
        [...]

Arnold commented:
>>>>>
 i believe these three have entirely independent histories; there is no
general tendency to eliminate prepositions in informal english.
anyway, the "away" of "pass away" is a particle, not a preposition.
 <<<<<

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:
 - 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'm sure I have noticed more, but I don't recall them at the moment. But the
floor is open for friendly amendments.

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian,
   Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody
   a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel
   [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]