The Writing Resource has a discussion of the awkward-sounding, but apparently grammatically acceptable, phrase "try and."
The OED’s first reference for try and dates to 1686:Further discussion at The Writing Resource, via Sentence First.
They try and express their love to God by their thankfulness to him. —The history of monastical conventions and military institutions (1686)Right away, we can see we’re not dealing with a new concept. Try and has been in common usage for over 300 years. This Google Ngram [above] shows that although try to has been more common than try and, the difference was fairly consistent until the early 19th century.
After 1820, usage of try and remained stable, but that of try to shot way up. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (MWDEU), try and started to be criticized as ungrammatical at that time. Never mind that by then, the usage had been in circulation for over 100 years and similar constructions (e.g., go and) had been around since the 13th century.
zzzz.... wake me up when prescriptivism is dead.
ReplyDeleteFUN TIPS FOR IF YOU SEE WORDS AND THEY DON'T SOUND LIKE WORDS YOU USE:
1. If you can understand the word/phrase from its context, if comprehension hasn't broken down, then everything is okay. Calm down. Life will go on.
2. Recognize the word/phrase as valid language. Every idiolect is beautiful.
3. Recognize that the word/phrase no doubt has a very long history. Pity you've missed out on it.
4. If you like the phrase, start using it. If you don't, don't use it. Let others do as they wish.
5. Don't even think about applying "logic" to try to prove the phrase or construction "doesn't make sense". Language isn't logical.
Language isn't performance art and 'if it's my thing then just let me do it' does have consequences.
ReplyDeleteYes, the continual evolution of the language.
ReplyDelete'Take and' in my experience is used mostly in the northern states like Minnesota. I hear it is the winter Texans that swarm down here.
ReplyDelete"Go and" and "Take and" aren't really similar to "Try and," as far as I can see. Only "Try" could be followed by an infinitive; it's the only one of the three where you have a choice between "to" and "and." You generally need another verb with "Try," whereas you don't with "Go" or "Take." If you do use "Go" or "Take" with another verb, you have two distinct actions: "Go and get her," "Take and eat." But with "Try and find it," the only action is "find."
ReplyDeleteRegardless of whether "Try and" is considered acceptable, despite Abbie's injunction to forget about logic, and no matter how old "Try and" is, there is a basis for preferring "Try to."
--Swift Loris