I lately lost a preposition

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:18 PM -0600 1/27/08, Gordon, Matthew J. wrote:
>This reminds me of the signs on the restrooms in
>Target stores which ask customers not to bring
>"unpaid merchandise" in.
>
>-Matt Gordon

Nice extension of preposition-swallowing from the
-able adjectives ("unreliable", "laughable",
"livable", "indispensable", "objectionable",
"unaccountable") that have had that property
since at least the 19th c. to participial ones.

LH

>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Mark Mandel
>Sent: Sun 1/27/2008 7:02 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject:      I lately lost a preposition
>
>A man remained unaccounted for after fire engulfed an Albemarle County
>townhouse Saturday night, as firefighters spent hours battling a blaze that
>lit up the structure's entire façade.
>The release states that fire officials have reason to believe this is the
>unaccounted [___] person.
>
>DailyProgress.com | Fire rips through
>townhouse<http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP/MGArticle/CDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173354376454&path=>
>
>m a m
>
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>
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