PRESCRIPTIVE SYNTAX

Choose one of the "usage rules" mentioned in class, and do the following:

• State concisely what the prescriptive rule is (see Dr Grammar or alt.usage.english FAQ)

• Give your opinion plus the opinion of four other people on what is acceptable

• What corpus or corpora (probably BNC/VIEW or Google; maybe NY Times or lds.org) would be best to study this?

• What query string(s) you used to search for this construction?

• What data did you find?

• Does the prescriptive rule hold up?