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Subject:Lots of prepositions From:Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Fri, 12 Jan 1996 11:41:15 +0800
The alt.usage.english newsgroup covers this and many other problems and
curiosities of the language. It's a good place for this sort of discussion.
From the FAQ:
> (2) The Guinness Book of (World) Records used to have a category
> for "most prepositions at end". The incumbent record was a sentence
> put into the mouth of a boy who didn't want to be read excerpts from
> a book about Australia as a bedtime story: "What did you bring that
> book that I don't want to be read to from out of about 'Down Under'
> up for?" Mark Brader (msb -at- sq -dot- com -- all this is to the best of his
> recollection; he didn't save the letter, and doesn't have access to
> the British editions) wrote to Guinness, asking: "What did you say
> that the sentence with the most prepositions at the end was 'What
> did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to from out of
> about "Down Under" up for?' for? The preceding sentence has one
> more." Norris McWhirter replied, promising to include this
> improvement in the next British edition, but actually it seems that
> Guinness, no doubt eventually realising that this could be done
> recursively, dropped the category.
Regards
---
Stuart Burnfield (slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au) On the fast lane to ataraxia