Re: observable language change - "off of" makes it to the NY Times

On 2008-08-10, Brian M. Scott wrote:

On Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:18:29 -0700 (PDT),
<analyst41@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:47020cff-57cc-4340-9bd7-2956455923af@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
in sci.lang:

start quote:

Overnight, Russia landed ground troops off of warships
into the disputed territory of Abkhazia and broadened its
bombing campaign to the Georgian capital’s airport.

end quote.

Whats next - "I'm like" for "I said" ?

Different category altogether. See, for instance,
<http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/nonerrors.html> (search
for 'off of').

I agree with you. There are plenty of other "compound prepositions"
in English: "He came down from the top of the hill while we were
walking up to it."

Of course, "off of" doesn't seem to add any information in comparison
with "off", but I'm not convinced that's much of an objection to
adding just one syllable or two letters.


--
Bob just used 'canonical' in the canonical way. [Guy Steele]
.

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