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Re: Evolution of Applicatives

From:Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
Date:Monday, November 15, 2004, 8:12
>>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.

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Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>