In the prepositional phrase : "Who did you give your number to?" Is the TO at the end of the sentence absolutely necessary?
Answer
The verb give participates in something called the Dative Alternation:
I gave the book to him.
I gave him the book.
Both of these sentences can be used with the same meaning. Levin gives the following examples of verbs that participate in the Dative Alternation:
- give-type verbs: give, hand, lend, loan, rent, sell, . . .
- send-type verbs: send, mail, ship, . . .
- throw-type verbs: fling, flip, kick, lob, slap, shoot, throw, toss, . . .
But the example I've given above is very simple. If we make things more cognitively complex by making the example interrogative, then we find a strong preference for the version that is explicitly marked by a preposition. Why?
In Cognitive complexity and increased grammatical explicitness in English, Günter Rohdenburg outlines his Complexity Principle, "explicitly marked phrases are preferred over zero-marked counterparts in cognitively complex environments". Following this principle, it seems many speakers have a strong preference for including to in the interrogative version:
Who did John give the book?
Who did John give the book to?
I personally find both versions grammatical, but I think you'll find that people usually choose to include this preposition in real life examples.
No comments:
Post a Comment