shoot to kill at

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Tue Aug 14 01:33:04 UTC 2007


Didn't strike me as odd at first reading in the paper, but I see the
point.  Perhaps one should take it as the order:

It is the first written proof that border guards were told to "shoot
to kill" at anyone trying to escape to West Germany.

Joel

At 8/13/2007 05:59 PM, James Harbeck wrote:
>I saw the following in today's New York Times email update:
>
>It is the first written proof that border guards were told to shoot
>to kill at anyone trying to escape to West Germany.
>
>It sounds odd to me, but evidently for the writer "shoot to kill" is
>a unit that, like "shoot", can take "at" rather than a phrase such
>that it would be natural to say "shoot to kill anyone..." -- which is
>what I would have tended towards.
>
>James Harbeck.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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