Re: Evolution of Applicatives

>>Again, this isn't relevant. *"The NEA was given money to by
>>liberal activists" is grossly ungrammatical, and that's the analogous
>>structure you're invoking.
>>
>>
I wouldn't say this as it strikes me as a little inelegant, but I
wouldn't say its ungrammatical. I often hear sentences like this, and I
thought the new trend in linguistics was to describe actual usage rather
than prescribe what is grammatical? I suspect it's one of those
borderline things... And I definately find "Money was given to the NEA
(by....)" acceptable, "Money was given the NEA" sounding american to me.
*shrugs* They often seem to skip "to"... like "I'm going to write him",
which is almost painful for me to hear lol.

Reply