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Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009"along with"
I heard a politician say this yesterday: "He along with I inspected the floods on a number of occasions." It doesn't look right, even though "along with" is synonymous with "and". What do you think? David AuE > I heard a politician say this yesterday: > "He along with I inspected the floods on a number of occasions." > > It doesn't look right, even though "along with" is synonymous with > "and". What do you think? It's wrong.  SignatureSkitt (AmE) > I heard a politician say this yesterday: > "He along with I inspected the floods on a number of occasions." [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > David > AuE If that was all the politician said, I think we can all be very grateful. -- Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego Quoth "DavidW" <no@email.provided>, and I quote: >I heard a politician say this yesterday: >"He along with I inspected the floods on a number of occasions." > >It doesn't look right, even though "along with" is synonymous with "and". What >do you think? It's about as correct as saying: "He came with I to inspect the floods". SignatureJames >Quoth "DavidW" <no@email.provided>, and I quote: > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >It's about as correct as saying: >"He came with I to inspect the floods". But one could reword it to say "He came along with me to inspect the floods". SignatureSteve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk Quoth Steve Hayes <hayesmstw@hotmail.com>, and I quote: >>Quoth "DavidW" <no@email.provided>, and I quote: >> [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > >But one could reword it to say "He came along with me to inspect the floods". Any way you reword it is OK as long as the preposition "with" is followed by the obective form "me". SignatureJames > Quoth Steve Hayes <hayesmstw@hotmail.com>, and I quote: > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > Any way you reword it is OK as long as the preposition "with" is > followed by the obective form "me". But isn't I/me the subject of the verb "inspected" and therefore should be "I"? You wouldn't say "Me inspected the floods." "Along with" could be replaced by "and" with exactly the same meaning, yet in one case you use the subject "I" and in the other the object "me". Quoth "DavidW" <no@email.provided>, and I quote: >> Quoth Steve Hayes <hayesmstw@hotmail.com>, and I quote: >> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >"and" with exactly the same meaning, yet in one case you use the subject "I" >and in the other the object "me". The subject here, i.e., who it was that inspected the floods, is not just "I". It's a unit consisting of two people "He and I" or "He along with me". Try it in this form: "He along with I am going to inspect the flood tomorrow." Does that sound good? Would you say: "My wife and I am very happy"? Apart from that, "with I" is always wrong (except in south-west English dialect, where they have a buck-passing folk song entitled "Don't Tell I, Tell He". SignatureJames >> Quoth "DavidW" <no@email.provided>, and I quote: >> [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > But one could reword it to say "He came along with me to inspect the floods". One could, but that would invite a wrong parsing. Surely the intended sense is He came, along with me, to inspect the floods and not He came along, with me, to inspect the floods The problem is that "along" is bracketed with forms of the verb "come" at least as often as it is with "with". Either way I find "along with" a long-winded and unnecessary way of saying "and", as well as being one that invites the sort of silly error that the oriinal politician made. Signatureathel David W. heard a politician say this: > >>> "He along with I inspected the floods on a number of occasions." Steve Hayes says that >> one could reword it to say "He came along with me to inspect the floods". > One could, but that would invite a wrong parsing. Surely the intended [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > and not > He came along, with me, to inspect the floods To me this seems to be a distinction without a difference. > Either way I find "along with" a long-winded and unnecessary way of > saying "and"... It is long-winded, but it doesn't just mean the same as "and". It says that the two people inspected the floods# together; with "and", they could have gone separately. Of course, someone who would say "he along with I" might not appreciate the distinction, and might use it even when they did go separately! #- To make sure they conformed to the regulations on floods? SignatureMark Brader | "He's suffering from Politician's Logic." Toronto | "Something must be done, this is something, therefore msb@vex.net | we must do it." -- Lynn & Jay: YES, PRIME MINISTER My text in this article is in the public domain. > David W. heard a politician say this: >>>>> "He along with I inspected the floods on a number of occasions." [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > To me this seems to be a distinction without a difference. Maybe I tried to make my commas do too much work. What I meant is that "came along" and "along with" are both strings that occur quite often in ordinary language, but "along" is doing different jobs in the two cases. Would you also say that Along with me, he came to inspect the floods He came along to inspect the floods with me are identical in meaning? For me the meanings overlap considerably but they are not identical. >> Either way I find "along with" a long-winded and unnecessary way of >> saying "and"... [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Of course, someone who would say "he along with I" might not appreciate > the distinction, and might use it even when they did go separately! It seems that you are seeing a difference between "along with" and "and" that I find exaggerated, wherease I am seeing a difference between "came-along with" and "came along-with" that you find exaggerated. Signatureathel >I heard a politician say this yesterday: > "He along with I inspected the floods on a number of occasions." > > It doesn't look right, even though "along with" is synonymous with "and". > What do you think? He and I inspected ... or He inspected ... with me ... or He went/came (along) with me to inspect ... or Like me, he ... Adrian |
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