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Re: "write him" was Re: More questions

From:Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>
Date:Thursday, November 27, 2003, 8:11
On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Stephen Mulraney wrote:

> John Cowan wrote: > > Tim May scripsit: > > > >>Here's how it works in my speech (which I imagine to be essentially > >>representative of British English, at least, in this respect). > > > > My 'lect agrees on all points except for "He wrote her" being grammatical. > > I think most people will agree on that. In a way, it's what's most curious > about the issue - there's a single form disallowed, for a single (?) verb. > Ah, the tyrant Usage.
I agree with you entirely: another example of Australia maintaining it's British heritage instead of copying America (which of course happens; the PP of 'to get' can be either 'got' or 'gotten', at a whim). But the exception is 'write me' and 'tell me' being acceptible. The vast majority of verbs like that would need 'to', at least as far as I can think (e.g. *sing me, *give me, *throw me (meaning 'throw me (something)'). -- Tristan

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Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...>