How picky are you on not ending a sentence with a preposition?

Ahh! A man after my own heart! I, too, have always been fascinated by the flexibility (hence, survivability) of languages and how readily the people can mold a language to serve the needs of the society. Dictionaries are always being updated and adjusted to better reflect the word choices of the people. Drop this word, add those three. In the past couple of years, the use of the word "right" has gained great popularity as an interjection or declaration of accord. A stand alone confirmation of a statement much like the stereotypical Canadian interjection "eh". Right?

There are over one hundred national language boards/academies around the world to "protect" and regulate the meanings, spelling, acceptability of languages. Spanish, in fact, actually has 22 language academies for the numerous Spanish-speaking nations. (French has two - one for France and one for Quebec, Canada). Curiously, the Académie française actually held long debates about the acceptability of French counterpart of the modern English "Ms." They 'permitted' the word Madane to be added to the French vocabulary but then shortly thereafter, made a reversal and declared the word invalid. Still, many people continue to use the variant, thus proving, the needs of the people outweigh the propriety of the rules.

Intriguing, eh?

 

These kinds of shifts do fascinate me because they point to broad changes in the language. Slang always gets the spotlight because it's so flashy, but slang is, by nature, always a one hit wonder, a flash in the pan. Its effect on any language is very, very weak. Changes to the nuts and bolts, the work-a-day words, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, these kind of changes speak of revolution. These kinds of words are stalwart traditionalists. They lead humble, very conservative lives based on doing things the way they've always been done. When they start going to midnight rallies and secret meetings, start changing the way they do what they do, whole paradigms change.

Again, this 'rule' has gone back and forth. First hammered home by medieval scribes, later by the 18th century elite. Is it correct? Is it not? Is one a prescriptive grammarian? Is one a descriptive grammarian? As you said, it depends.

 

The way I see it, all languages have rules, there is definitely something under the hood of every language that dictates what can and cannot happen within certain time frames. That's why YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) can't be an official word in English at the moment - there is absolutely no other word in the entire language at this point in time that follows that consonant-vowel structure in terms of the written language. How does anyone pronounce it? It stands apart from the entire language, and likely 'YMMV' would have to be adapted to be a word by itself at this point in time. We know it's just an abbreviation, and by itself, it's written form does not indicate how it should be spoken (there are many awkward words in the English language that give less than ample indication of correct pronunciation, sometimes using the same spelling as a different-sounding vowel/constant cluster, but 'YMMV' would have to top them all). In the future it will be different, but only because of the evolution of the general conventions of the language and how it is both written and spoken.

Language is constantly changing, but at any given time there are certain things that can and cannot happen. 'OTOH' could work as a word because it at least gives an indication of how to pronounce it (how people pronounce those symbols of the Latin alphabet will vary). So, rules aren't a myth, but they are largely hidden from all but those who study how languages actually work. Do 'vlim' or 'klompter' sound English, or like they could be common English words? To me, no they don't - and they can't at the moment - because they depart with the features of many of the words in the rest of the language. They combine consonants and vowels in odd manners you just don't find in English (and 'klompter' has issues with the assimilation of various sounds into one another).

 

Thanks for all the comments. I am gathering that it is fair to summarize the answer to my question as it being a matter of style and/or of voice.

 

Saw this today and thought of this thread:

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/ending-sentence-preposition?page=1

 

http://youtu.be/9OLxLK_R6jQ

 

Now that I look back on it, my comment from a year ago, is still the top comment )) ^^^

I am ][ that close to being famous!!!

 

'top' meaning what, exactly?

 

Or, to quote Churchill, "That is a rule up with which I will not put."

 

Most often "thumb upped" (I'm making up words, left and right here!)? The quote is from a set of directions for a light switch. "Turn switch up to on, down to off." SIX prepositions, at the end of that sentence. I cringed so badly when I read it, I actually got goosebumps, reading it.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. We can pick apart language until there are no words left. As a writer you could go insane trying to write something that conforms to all the 'rules' set out by people in years past. I don't like feeling that constrained and a sentence that works, works. I don't want to interrupt the flow of writing just so I feel like some literary peeps somewhere else in the world will tip their heads at a style of writing that isn't mine.

 

where/how do you see our posts' thumb-up/down count?

 

On the bottom right, of the video, you can click the YouTube button. From there you can see the comments (I think) and if not, click [show more]. Next to the name "dbuschhorn" are buttons with thumbs up or down. You can even feel free to thumb-down me, even though with every thumb-up, a staggeringly cute kitten is adopted.

Every thumb-down? Justin Bieber buys another song to sing.

Please think of the kittens.