another lost preposition

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

this time in AmE vs. BrE.

paraphrasing Garner's Modern American Usage (2003):

   protest against: against may be omitted in AmE, but not in BrE (649)

and Burchfield's New Fowler's (1998):

   protest: transitive use accepted in AmE, but “far from natural” in
BrE (635)

and MWDEU (1989):

   protest [against]: transitive as common in U.S. as intransitive
use; BrE still normally uses against; commentators warn that omission
will cause confusion, but not the case (784)

and quoting OED (draft revision Dec. 2007) for the relevant sense:

   "Chiefly U.S. To object to (an action or event); to challenge or
contest; (also) to make the subject of a public protest or
demonstration."

this is for "protest" in things like "protest the war" 'protest
against the war'.  other transitive uses of "protest" -- with "that"-
clause complements and quotations as objects -- are fine in both BrE
and AmE.

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