Jan Freeman on preposition dropping

[Wilson Gray]

Well, it sounds odd to me. Apropos nothing, even the univerbal
spelling, "apropos," as opposed to "a propos" with a breve, seems a
bit odd. it must be the generation gap. Or, perhaps, a consequence of
learning English as a second dialect. Converts tend to take the
religion more seriously than those born into it. At first, anyway. ;-)

-Wilson

On 9/10/07, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Jan Freeman on preposition dropping
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> At 4:14 PM -0400 9/10/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >I came across "apropos NP" in the yesterday's Sunday Times and then
> >lost it, damn it!
> >
> >-Wilson
>
> This usage isn't that odd, is it?  I just found one on Nexis, but
> from The Observer, not The (NY or London) Times:
>
> The Observer (England)
> September 9, 2007
> FOOTBALL: COMMENT: Counting cost of Roman's orgy of excess
> BYLINE: Paul Wilson
>
> SECTION: OBSERVER SPORT PAGES; Pg. 18
> Good to see Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional
> Footballers' Association, take an eminently sensible stance on
> painkilling injections. 'You shouldn't take risks,' Taylor said,
> apropos Steve Gerrard's broken toe. 'I cannot approve of injections.
> Managers work in the short term, but I have to see it from the health
> and safety aspect.' I hope Rafa Benitez was listening. England might
> not have had to spend the week worrying about Gerrard's fitness had
> he not played with a jab against Chelsea.
>
> LH
>
>
>
> >
> >On 9/9/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >>  Subject:      Jan Freeman on preposition dropping
> >>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  Nice column today by Jan Freeman in The Globe about how Brits blame
> >>  preposition dropping ("appeal/battle/protest against" -> trans.
> >>  "appeal/battle/protest") on the Yanks:
> >>
> >>  http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/09/09/yankees_win/
> >>
> >>  It's a nice example of what Lynne Murphy recently dubbed British
> >>  Verbal Superiority Complex (mirroring American Verbal Inferiority
> >>  Complex):
> >>
> >>
> >>http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/09/diapers-nappies-and-verbal-inferiority.html
> >>
> >>  On a side note, Jan's column refers to Arnold Zwicky's ADS-L
> >>  discussion of "abscond (with)" last month. That's when the list was
> >>  suffering from some weird posting behavior -- Arnold's post never
> >>  showed up in the archive, even though it showed up in (some?)
> >>  subscribers' mailboxes. My reply to Arnold's post did show up in the
> >>  archive:
> >>
> >>  http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0708B&L=ADS-L&P=27049
> >>
> >>
> >>  --Ben Zimmer
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-----
> >                                               -Sam'l Clemens
> >
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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