Generational Lag

An article Terrible news for pedants as Merriam-Webster relaxes the rules of English discusses the use of English Grammar.

You all remember the rule about how you can’t split an infinitive – to mildly put it.

“So it’s OK to end with a preposition? It’s confirmed in the FAQ section of its online dictionary: “The people who claim that a terminal preposition is wrong are clearly clinging to an idea born in the 17th century and largely abandoned by grammar and usage experts in the early 20th century.”

My high school years were 1959-1963, sixty years ago. I am an old man!

My high school years were not in the early 20th century.

English was a required pass for matriculation exams – the entrance qualifications for entering University. My mother told me later in life that the day I was born she held me in her arms and dreamed of attending my graduation ceremony. I was going to University. I was going to Matriculate. My mother had decided.

I was going to pass English after five years of High School.

I passed English!

And the odd thing is that on that day in 1946, my mother did not know that ten years later we would emigrate to Western Australia and my university would be The University of Western Australia.

By the time graduation day in Perth came around, I was living and working in Wollongong NSW and Mum was living in Geraldton WA, 4,200 kilometres away.

So much for passing examinations in English.

Now, “the early 20th century” was a hundred years ago, and here we are discussing ending sentences propositions with (See? It can sound awkward to our ears; even ‘though it incorrect is. And we CAN it understand!)

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