urbane prepositions rule
Dennis Baron
debaron at UIUC.EDU
Thu Jan 4 17:37:09 UTC 2007
Lindley Murray’s (1795), An English Grammar: Comprehending the
Principles and Rules of the Language, illustrated by appropriate
exercises and a Key to the Exercises.
Without checking the actual text, here's my summary, emphasis added,
taken from class notes: Murray, in discussing style, recommends
paying attention to the following factors -- and here he indicates
that preps shouldn't end sentences simply because they're
insignificant words.
Clearness (related words must be placed as close to one another as
possible),
unity (don’t change the scene or topic),
strength (don’t repeat or put in extra words; don’t end with adverbs,
prepositions, or other “inconsiderable” words),
a judicious use of figures of speech (they should be clear and well-
motivated).
DB
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