Thanks for those links, zmjezhd! I do like a bit of grammar myself, and I must say that my strictest instruction in grammar, particularly punctuation, came during the time I wrote limericks for OEDILF (under the name of Recumbentman). Nobody is as particular about correct usage as a correct American, I found.

As an admirer of Wittgenstein I regard grammar as important, but I agree that many shibboleths grew from a misplaced wish to import Latin grammar into English. The English saw themselves in the 17th century as heirs of the classics, particularly Dryden, who wrote in praise of Milton: "Three poets in three different ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. . . "

Curiously, Dryden wouldn't have got away with that comma between subject (three poets) and verb (did adorn) in OEDILF; at the least he would have been requested to add another comma after 'poets', making 'in three different ages born' into a proper subsidiary clause.

I often put Anu's 'Thoughts for Today' into my collection of quotes; today I snipped his wisdom about prepositions:

Quote:
A note about ending a sentence with a preposition. Some believe there's something wrong with that. It's a myth. One can find sentences ending with preps in the lines of some of the finest writers in history: Chaucer, Swift, Kipling, Shakespeare and so on. "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" -- Try rephrasing that line from The Tempest. See what inelegant glob results. This canard about no-prepositions-at-the-end belongs in the same dustbin as "Thou shalt not split an infinitive."
So the next time people fault you for ending a sentence with a preposition, ask them: "What are you talking about?"