Significant minority find lockdown 'extremely difficult', poll suggests

[whole diary]

[Oxonhutch]

Home is the only noun used directly following go without a preposition. Why? Presumably because 'go home' (or 'I'm going home' etc) is such a common phrase. So I'm surmising, without having actually researched ( Roll Eyes  :facepalm:) that originally – probably very early in the development of English – there was an intervening 'to', which it has become normal and correct to omit.

Romanes eunt domus Romani ite domum !! 



Just realised, it might look like Scunthorpe in there. There isn't - honest!!

[Bmblbzzz]

Russian has a single word домой 'domoi' meaning 'go(ing) home(wards)'. I dare say some other languages do too. There might be a language somewhere which has a single word meaning 'stay(ing) (at) home'. And doesn't French have a specific verb 'rentrer' meaning 'go home' (as opposed to 'retourner' = 'go back, return')?

[didcotdean]

It is one of those many features that makes English a difficult language for non-native speakers to learn, as there are no completely logical rules to follow.

To is also not used with "here", "there", "somewhere", "anywhere", and "away". Or with gerunds (go shopping etc)

In some dialects it also isn't used with some other nouns, such as "town". This is even analogous with "home" as the word originally in Old English (then spelt hām) also meant a settlement. (The word 'hamlet' is related to this but not directly as it was re-borrowed from Norman French.)

[JontyMort]

I don't ever recall seeing the phrase 'go to home' used as an instruction except perhaps on a game board - or should that be 'board game board'? Common usage would I think be either 'go home' or 'go to your home'.

Home is the only noun used directly following go without a preposition. Why? Presumably because 'go home' (or 'I'm going home' etc) is such a common phrase. So I'm surmising, without having actually researched (   :facepalm:) that originally – probably very early in the development of English – there was an intervening 'to', which it has become normal and correct to omit.

In the phrase “go home” the word “home” is an adverb of place, not a noun.

[GBM]

I don't ever recall seeing the phrase 'go to home' used as an instruction except perhaps on a game board - or should that be 'board game board'? Common usage would I think be either 'go home' or 'go to your home'.

Home is the only noun used directly following go without a preposition. Why? Presumably because 'go home' (or 'I'm going home' etc) is such a common phrase. So I'm surmising, without having actually researched (   :facepalm:) that originally – probably very early in the development of English – there was an intervening 'to', which it has become normal and correct to omit.

In the phrase “go home” the word “home” is an adverb of place, not a noun.

This is making my head hurt 
However, our daughter, Father & Father in Law would love this discussion!

[grahame]

This is making my head hurt 
However, our daughter, Father & Father in Law would love this discussion!

Please feel free to invite your daughter, father, father in law (and cousins too) to join the forum and contribute, provided they have some interest in public transport too.   But, please, don't extend that suggestion to them if you come here for a bit of friendly pedant-escapism!

[TaplowGreen]

The Pedants Revolt Mk II

[stuving]

In the phrase “go home” the word “home” is an adverb of place, not a noun.

Prepositions are notoriously tricky idiomatic little things - I had a quick look at the language primers on my bookshelf, and the first two both said exactly that about them and how hard they are to translate as a result. And as preposition+noun=adverbial phrase, and the choice of preposition can depend idiomatically on both noun and verb, it often looks as if "no preposition" is just another preposition to choose idiomatically. I'd be happy to let linguists puzzle over how to analyse such usages, but their (multiple) suggestions probably won't make any difference to anyone's usage.

I remember my brother had a book to learn Danish, in which there was a table cross-referring all the common prepositions, about 20 in each language. Every square had an example in it! I can't now remember whether it had "no preposition" as a row or column, but I suspect it did.

In the case of "home", however, calling it an adverb does make sense. It's used with other verbs too in the same way - e.g. drive home, slot home (of inanimate objects like cotter pins and footballs) or slouch home, rush home.  Of course that's a description, and not prescriptive.

[Bmblbzzz]

Fair call on home being an adverb in this case. My mistake earlier.

I remember reading a few years in a language blog (it might even have been Language Log, though I can't remember for sure now) a claim that there was now a second word functioning with no preposition after to, albeit only in one variety of English. It was the Australian phrase 'go bush'. Unfortunately the examples given were clearly in the sense 'go crazy' rather than movement into the bush.

[didcotdean]

A quick comparison within a few other languages indicates this is a formation common in Northern but not Western Germanic languages which retain the equivalent of 'to'. So blame the Vikings for causing the problem in the first place

[TonyK]

The Pedants Revolt Mk II

Which Tyler?

[Marlburian]

Reading station tribute to NHS

[Bob_Blakey]

On a vaguely related topic...in this neck of the woods we have a company called Plants Galore, with branches in Exeter, Newton Abbot & Plymouth, which continues to trade despite being issued with prohibition notices - on the 27th & 28th March and with subsequent duplicates - by the relevant local authorities. The owner has essentially told the councils to take him to court if they think they have a case because that is the only way he will be stopped. The apparent daily visits from the 'boys in blue' have obviously not dissuaded the large number of customers, judging from the full car park every time I cycle past, who might surely be 'nicked' for making unnecessary journeys. 

[Robin Summerhill]

On a vaguely related topic...in this neck of the woods we have a company called Plants Galore, with branches in Exeter, Newton Abbot & Plymouth, which continues to trade despite being issued with prohibition notices - on the 27th & 28th March and with subsequent duplicates - by the relevant local authorities. The owner has essentially told the councils to take him to court if they think they have a case because that is the only way he will be stopped. The apparent daily visits from the 'boys in blue' have obviously not dissuaded the large number of customers, judging from the full car park every time I cycle past, who might surely be 'nicked' for making unnecessary journeys. 

I know there are people on this forum whose understanding of law is better then mine, but on the face of it this is an interesting situation.

This is the time of year for planting. Our local supernarkets and Farm Shop, all of which usually sell seeds and seedlings at this time of year, are still allowed to open. Presumably Plants Galore also sell the same products. Where is the logic in one being able to buy a packet of seeds or a tomato plant seeding in Morrison's when you can't buy them at a Garden Centre?

We are told that we can buy anything in a shop that is still allowed to open, whether or not it is "essential." Furthermore, nobody has ever defined what "essential" is and rightly so, because each person's essential purchases may vary depemding on their own circumstances. As was pointed out recently, a bat and ball set might be seen as "essential" if it is the only way to entertain the kids/ keep 'em quiet.

We should also not lose sight of what the regulations are for in the first place. They are to avoid the spread of this virus, not to punish the population.

Having done no further research on this particular case, it strikes me that a pig-headed local authority might have come across a pig-headed trader and neither of them want to be seen to back down (Substitute "principled" for "pig-headed" if you prefer because the use of the term was rather subjective!)

For the avoidance of doubt I have not concluded who is right or who is wrong in my opinion in this case, I am simply trying to look at the wider issue (added in case someone posts the term "snowflake" again... )

[Bob_Blakey]

Plants Galore, unsurprisingly, is primarily a retailer of house & garden plants but also sells garden tools & pet food. As one of the justifications for his approach the owner has pointed out that the Aldi store 300 yards away also sells all these things and are (legally) permitted to trade normally.