[Ads-l] _try to_ vs. _try and_

[Margaret Lee]

 Yes, I was taught to use 'try to' rather than 'try and'.   The old 'proper English' mandate, but what exactly is 'proper English'?  Who decides what is 'proper'?   Are any of you familiar with the Max Weinreich quote:  "A language is a dialect with an army an a navy" ?
--Margaret Lee 

    On ‎Saturday‎, ‎December‎ ‎16‎, ‎2017‎ ‎12‎:‎04‎:‎23‎ ‎AM‎ ‎EST, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:  
 
 I was somewhat intrigued to find, in Am.Sp., Vol.81, No.3, an article with
the following title:

Why Does Canadian English use _try to_, But British English Use _try and_?

Not having read the article, I have no answer to that question. However, I
*can* answer the question, "Why do _I_ use _try to_ and not _try and_?"

The answer is simple. I was specifically *taught* not to use _try and_,
because the construction is semi-literate and déclassé, used only by the
ill-taught lower orders. The well-educated, better classes use only _try
to_, as one of many small ways in which their use of language demonstrates
their command of proper English.

Didn't none of y'all get taught this class distinction, I reckon.

-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org