"For a dogmatic Prescriptivist, "Where's it at?" is double-damned as a sentence that not only ends with a preposition but whose final preposition forms a redundancy with where that's similar to the redundancy in "the reason is because" (which latter usage I'll admit makes me dig my nails into my palms). Rejoinder: First off, the avoid-terminal-prepositions rule is the invention of one Fr. R. Lowth, an eighteenth-century British preacher and indurate pedant who did things like spend scores of pages arguing for hath over the trendy and degenerate has. The a.-t.-p. rule is antiquated and stupid and only the most ayatolloid SNOOT takes it seriously..."
From a 2001 essay in Harper's Magazine by David Foster Wallace.
Yes. Just... Yes.
ReplyDeleteUgh. A HUGE pet peeve of mine as well.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I have stopped correcting people. Once upon a time, my brother said to me, "Hey, where are you going to be at?" I corrected him by saying, "You know, you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition." Without missing a beat he replied, "Okay. Where are you going to be at, asshole?"
There endeth my grammar lesson for that day.
Regarding correcting other people's errors, you might enjoy going to the essay itself and reading the section about SNOOTs.
ReplyDeleteWhat an article!
ReplyDeleteI am, I think, finally convinced of the efficacy of technology when it can make D.F.W.'s footnotes this easy to read.
Even greater than my hatred of "the reason is because..." is my hatred of "the reason being is that...."
ReplyDelete