Prepositions: words that you should never end a sentence!

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Apr 25, 2011, at 8:37 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

>
> I've become sensitive lately to constructions like that. Fortunately, I only
> find them in speech. Unfortunately, they're not all that uncoomon.

they also occur with moderate frequency in writing.  many postings about the phenomenon on Language Log and here, along with a big collection of other types of "preposition omission".

>
> Yesterday an anchor on Fox News referred to a colleague as "someone who
> we're never able to stay away!"
>
> SWAG: the insidious effect of the stricture never to end a sentence with a
> "preposition," blended with an increasing reluctance or inability to say
> "PREP + _whom_."

some probably do arise this way (as LLog writers suggested), but others are probably the result of truncation in context, where the listener/reader can supply the appropriate P from context.

arnold

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