Preposition deletion

[Randy Alexander]

On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 6:44 PM, Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at sussex.ac.uk> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
> Subject:      Re: Preposition deletion
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Using 'down' and 'up' without 'to' is allowable in British English in
> certain contexts--whether there's a rule to this I'm not sure.  But one
> goes 'down the pub' .  One also goes 'round' places, such as 'going round
> Mary's house'--whereas in AmE I think I'd have say 'going around to M's
> house'--but maybe I've just lost all of my intuitions.
>
> Here's a bloggy example with up:
> Tonight, I'm going up London Town to see my lovely Big Fella;
> (dearwitho.blogspot.com/2003_11_01_archive.html)
>
> We have a final-year student who's just embarking on his dissertation
> project on the loss of 'to' after 'go' in some contexts, e.g.  "I'm going
> the pub".  My initial impression was that the contexts in which it happens
> tend to be ones in which the destination is more than a physical
> destination--it's an activity.  But we'll see what turns up when he's
> researched it more properly.
>
> Lynne
>

I wonder if it's only after (or perhaps also before) alveolar consonants.

If you can say "I'm going the pub" can you also say "She wants to go my pub"?

--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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