Re: "write him" was Re: More questions

Tristan McLeay wrote:
> 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)').
Let me get a quick poll of another (to my mind) oddity.

Does anyone employ phrases like "The water will stop immediately the stop-cock
is turned"? (I've just noticed it in some anti-frost precautions the Uni sent
around). I'm refering to the lack (to my mind) of a word such as "when" or
"after" following "immediately. I've only ever noticed it in England, and it
really suprises me each time I see it.

--
        Stephen Mulraney                ataltane@ataltane.net
A clever man commits no minor blunders -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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