This assignment is adapted from Problems in the Origins and Development of the English Language, 3rd Edition, by John Algeo.
For your “construction,” which will be assigned to you (see below), research language usage guides—in texts, online, and in dictionaries—and compare the various notes on usage to formulate your own opinion on usage. For further evidence, you must collect examples of usage of the construction in your everyday life. Finally, evaluate the larger problem that your construction evokes. To report your findings, you will make a brief (but focused) oral presentation to the class and write a five-page paper (typed, 250 words/page, MLA style).
1. Consult the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (the unabridged text with citations that show the evolution of the word or construction). [A purpose of this assignment is to get you to use the OED, a most important document.] Required.
2. Compare the opinions from usage guides, including those in a college-level dictionary (see the list below for suggestions). [Another purpose of this assignment is to acquaint you with such resources.] Required: at least six sources from this category.
3. Collect examples from printed and overheard sources (see the list below for suggestions). [One of the purposes of this assignment is to tune your eyes and ears to language usage.]
4. Organize your research into an assertion, with evidence to support it, and develop your own evaluation of the problem. Please remember that these are “problems” with “solutions” that are, at best, ambiguous. [Yet another of the purposes of this assignment is to teach you that language usage is conditional, regional, biased, and topical.]
5. Prepare an oral presentation for class, which will last almost exactly four minutes and that will include a visual aid for your audience. [This part of the assignment’s purpose is for you to teach others what you have learned and to persuade them of your assertion.]
6. Write a three-page paper that will be interesting for your audience. [Finally, the purpose for writing is to learn – and demonstrate – what you have learned.]
Usage Guides—A Brief Bibliography
Oxford English Dictionary
Choose at least six guides (compare several editions of a text for more evidence), e.g.
The Elements of Style, Strunk and White
The Elephants of Style: A Trunkload of Tips on the Big Issues and Gray Areas of Contemporary American English, Bill Walsh
Your Own Words, Barbara Wallraff
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Lynne Truss
Lapsing Into a Comma: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print—And How to Avoid Them, Bill Walsh
The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press
Garner’s Modern American Usage, Bryan Garner
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: The Official Style Guide Used by Writers and Editors of the World’s Most Authoritative Newspaper, Allan Siegal and William Connolly
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, H.W. Fowler
The Careful Writer, Theodore Bernstein
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Merriam-Webster
The American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English, Editors of The American Heritage Dictionaries
Modern American Usage: A Guide, Wilson Follett and Erik Wensberg
New York Public Library Writer’s Guide to Style and Usage, Andrea Sutcliffe
Choose at least one college-level dictionary (if appropriate to your construction), e.g.
The American Heritage College Dictionary
Webster’s New World College Dictionary
Nota Bene: Not all dictionaries are alike: they vary in quality and content.
Places to research construction in your everyday life (sometimes without even trying) Required
• Signs, billboards, posters, graffiti
• Newspapers (unedited letters to the editor), magazines, catalogues, junk mail
• Email, websites, chat rooms, instant messages
• Product labels, food containers,
• Conversations with friends, relatives; overheard conversations of strangers
• Newscasts, TV shows, radio programs, movies, videos, song lyrics
• Anywhere you hear or read words
Nota Bene: Grammarly, Grammar Girl, and similar sites are not scholarly and will not “count” for your source requirement.
Constructions (only one to a class member and first come, first served)
1. What are you asking about? (similarly, other final prepositions)
2. I’m ready, aren’t I? (ain’t)
3. She felt badly about it.
4. The second is the best of the two books. (similarly, other superlatives used for one of two)
5. There were no secrets between the three brothers.
6. Philip wants to leave. But he can’t. (similarly, and, or, nor)
7. Houston contacted the astronauts on their second orbit. (similarly, other nouns made verbs)
8. The data is available now. (similarly, criteria)
9. The answer was different than what we expected.
10. It don’t make any difference.
11. The members of the senate supported each other in the election.
12. Everybody finished their work. (similarly, everyone, nobody, no one, someone, and so forth with plural pronouns)
13. Drive three miles further south and turn right.
14. Have you gotten the answer yet?
15. She graduated from Vassar.
16. You had better go. (similarly, had rather, had sooner, had best, and so forth)
17. We heard about him winning the contest. (similarly, other nongenitives before gerunds)
18. The reason she’s late is because she ran out of gas.
19. A finesse is where declarer plays the queen instead of the ace while the king is out against him. (similarly is when)
20. We have less problems this year than last
21. The weather looks like it will be clearing soon.
22. It’s me. (similarly, objective forms of other pronouns after to be)
23. It is the most perfect play ever written. (similarly, comparative and superlative forms of unique, round, square, white, and so forth)
24. They sent separate invitations to my wife and myself. (similarly, other self-forms without antecedent)
25. Make the dog get off of the bed.
26. You only live once.
27. James has a pretty good reason for asking.
28. Vesper didn’t like those kind of tactics. (similarly, kind and sort with plural modifiers or verb)
29. It is necessary to actively resist oppression. (similarly, other split infinitives)
30. You ought to try and see the Little Theater’s new play.
31. If the test was held on Sunday, more people could take it. (Similarly, was in other subjunctive clauses).
32. Who did you see? (similarly, who in other object functions)
33. We will probably sing “We Shall Overcome.”
34. You never know when your time will come.
35. The meeting will be moved to 3:00 pm as per the president’s order.