- To think of the campaign without the scene is as who should read a play by candle-light among the ghosts of an empty theatre.—MORLEY.
30. BRACHYLOGY
1. Omission of a dependent noun in the second of two parallel series: 'The brim of my hat is wider than yours'. For this there is some justification: an ugly string of words is avoided, and the missing word is easily supplied from the first series; it has usually the effect, however, of attaching a preposition to the wrong noun:
- I should be proud to lay an obligation upon my charmer to the amount of half, nay, to the whole of my estate—RICHARDSON.
- There is as much of the pure gospel in their teachings as in any other community of Christians in our land.
- There cannot be the same reason for a prohibition of correspondence with me, as there was of mine with Mr. Lovelace.—RICHARDSON.
Here the right preposition is retained.
- A man holding such a responsible position as Minister of the United States.—D. SLADEN.
2. A preposition is sometimes left out, quite unwarrantably,
from a mistaken idea of euphony:
- Without troubling myself as to what such self-absorption might lead in
the future.—CORELLI. (lead to)
- He chose to fancy that she was not suspicious of what all his acquaintance were perfectly aware-namely, that ... —THACKERAY. (aware of)
3. Impossible compromises between two possible alternatives.
- To be a Christian means to us one who has been regenerated.—Daily
Telegraph. (A Christian means one who has' : 'to be a Christian means to have been')
- To do what as far as human possibility has proved out of his power.—Daily Telegraph. ('As a matter of human possibility' : 'as far as human possibility goes')
One compromise of this kind has come to be generally recognized:
- So far from being annoyed, he agreed at once. ('So far was he from being annoyed that ...' : 'far from being annoyed, he agreed')