John McWhorter on prepositions

John McWhorter in The New York Times, stating what ought to be obvious: “The ‘Rule’ Against Ending Sentences With Prepositions Has Always Been Silly.” From Garner’s Modern English Usage :

The spurious rule about not ending sentences with prepositions is a remnant of Latin grammar, in which a preposition was the one word that a writer could not end a sentence with. But Latin grammar should never straitjacket English grammar. If the superstition is a “rule” at all, it is a rule of rhetoric and not of grammar, the idea being to end sentences with strong words that drive a point home.... That principle is sound, of course, but not to the extent of meriting lockstep adherence or flouting established idiom.

And:

Good writers don’t hesitate to end their sentences with prepositions if doing so results in phrasing that seems natural.

Bryan Garner cites a dozen writers on language, from 1936 to 2003, all of whom approve of ending a sentence with a preposition. And he adds nine examples from writers who so ended sentences. Notice too the first sentence in the passage I’ve quoted.

Even stranger is a bogus rule, which Garner doesn’t mention, against ending a sentence with the word it. A student once asked me about that one, which I’d never heard of. I tracked down its origin: Ending a sentence with it.

[That post gets visits daily.]