[Ads-l] Authorship correction: "Up with Which I Will Not Put"

James Landau 00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Wed Jun 30 00:32:16 UTC 2021


Harry is getting along in years and finds that he is 
unable to perform sexually. He finally goes to his 
doctor, who tries a few things but nothing seems to 
work. So the doctor refers him to an American Indian 
medicine man. 

The medicine man says, "I can cure this." That said, 
he throws a white powder in a flame, and there is a 
flash with billowing blue smoke. 

Then he says, "This is powerful medicine. You can only 
use it once a year. All you have to do is say '123' 
and it shall rise for as long as you wish!" 

The guy then asks, "What happens when it's over, and I 
don't want to continue?" The medicine man replies: 
"All you or your partner has to say is 1234, and it 
will go down. But be warned -- it will not work again 
for another year!" 

Harry rushes home, eager to try out his new powers and 
prowess. That night he is ready to surprise Joyce. He 
showers, shaves, and puts on his most exotic shaving 
lotion. He gets into bed, and lying next to her says, "123." 

He suddenly becomes more aroused than anytime in his life ... just as 
the medicine man had promised. Joyce, 
who had been facing away, turns over and asks, 
"What did you say 123 for?" 

And that, my friends, is why you shouldn't end a sentence with a 
preposition.


     (source unknown)
Neither "hunky" (i.e. literary) English nor Black English allow for two prepositions in a row, so "up with which" is simply not allowed in any variety of English.  (I can hear Wilson Gray mercury fulminating "I thought Whitey knew how to use proper White english grammar!")
Then how do we parse "up" and "with"?
"Up" can be more than a preposition:  "Up, Up," said the hunter to his faithful dog Up as they climbed up the hillside and continued up along the mountain trail to the hunter's favorite duck blind, where he intended to up his score of eider ducks that he had downed for their down.  But his luck was not up to his usual today.  His shotgun was down.
Then how do we parse "which I will not put up with"?
Easy.  "Put up with" is a transitive "phrasal verb", i.e. it is derived from the infinitive "to put up with".

The structure is OSV  "which (direct object) I (subject) with not put up with (verb).

James Landau
jjjrlandau at netscape.com

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



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