[Ads-l] _try to_ vs. _try and_

[Jonathan Lighter]

> between optimistic speakers and realistic speakers.

I've been called a lot of things, but never an "optimist."

JL

On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 12:44 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Dec 16, 2017, at 5:50 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > I was taught this as well.
> >
> > But I always say "and."
> >
> > And I always right "to."
> >
> But you sometimes wrong “and”?
> >
> > On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 4:39 AM, Margaret Lee <
> > 0000006730deb3bf-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> 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
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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