07 January 2013

Terminal prepositions

For the August 1968 issue of Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, Darryl Francis devised one sentence that ends with nine prepositions. If the Yardbirds' 1966 single "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" were exported to Australia and then retrieved by a traveler, the question might be asked:
"What did he bring 'Over, Under, Sideways, Down' up from Down Under for?"
Inspired, Ralph Beaman pointed out that if this issue of the journal were now brought to a boy who slept on the upper floor of a lighthouse, he might ask:
"What did you bring me the magazine I didn't want to be read to out of about '"Over Under, Sideways, Down" up from Down Under' up around for?"
There's more at the Futility Closet entry.

1 comment:

  1. I lately lost a preposition:
    It hid, I thought, beneath my chair.
    And angrily I cried: "Perdition!
    Come up from out of in under there!"

    ReplyDelete

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