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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