I lately lost a preposition

[sagehen]

More prepositions lost; this time on The World (BBC/WGBH) news program. Brit
newsreader used the expression "agree a sthg" twice,  rendering what I'd
have thought an intransitive verb transitive.  A minute or two later, th e
American newsreader used "agree" with /to/ or /with/  or /on/  (I don't
remember which as we usually do. Is this prepositionless "agree" now the
norm in Britain?
AM

on 1/27/08 8:47 PM, Joel S. Berson at Berson at ATT.NET wrote:

> At 1/27/2008 08:02 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>> 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.
>
> According to other writers on this list, there
> are a lot of excess "of"s around.
>
> But I note a few unaccountants who have
> malfeased* their prepositions in the OED:
>
> 2. Of which no account is given.
> 1689 Apol. Fail. Walker's Acc. 19 Those
> unaccounted (but not unaccountable) baffles giv'n
> to the reliefs sent to Derry.  1812 Examiner 5
> Oct. 633/1 Which suffers an Irish Defaulter of
> unaccounted millions, to remain unaudited.  1827
> Hallam Const. Hist. II. 56 note, They reported
> unaccounted balances of 1,509,161l., besides much
> that was questionable in the payments.
>
> *If misfease can be a verb in the OED, why can't malfease?
>
> Joel
>
>> DailyProgress.com | Fire rips through
>> townhouse<http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP/MGArtic
>> le/CDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173354376454&path=>
>
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>

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