English grammar nit-pickiness

[sjcarpediem]

Grammar brain meltdown == Instant confusion!

Poll Sample

I realize I should know this, but this is a case of a split infinitive, or is it transitivity, or something else? "to show someone something" or "to show something to someone"? They're both correct? That can't be...

Comments

[blumenfeuer]

"let me show you it" reminds me of lolcats.

[sjcarpediem]

I get the same sense; but now the other option reminds me of lolcats, too, so I don't know which one is right anymore and I can't remember the governing rule...

[madscience]

Same here. I think "let me show you it" is deliberately awkward phrasing.

[six_crazy_guys]

Totally lolcat in my mind too. Used unironically I'd slap the author silly, though.

[shanrina]

I don't know the actual grammar rule, but I'd never say "let me show you it" unless it was for a LOLcats/LOLwhatever thing.

[lilacsigil]

I thought it was for LOLcats, so I chose "let me show you it" - the LOL is on me!

[sjcarpediem]

HaHaHa... oh, this medium (the Internet) is delightful...

[fenoxielo524]

But replace "it" with "something" and all the awkwardness goes away for me. Anyone else?

[nekokaze]

They're both correct. The phenomenon is known as dative shift (that article's actually rather terse and technical, but Googling the term will yield results). An indirect object loses its preposition and moves before the direct object, giving you essentially two direct objects.

[nekokaze]

I should note it works with a whole class of verbs:

I showed the bread to you. / I showed you the bread.
I gave the bread to you. / I gave you the bread.
I sold the bread to you. /I sold you the bread.
I threw the bread to you. / I threw you the bread.
...

[awils1]

There’s also:

I’ll show it to you/I’ll show you it.

[sjcarpediem]

Thank you! This is what I was looking for as far as a governing concept.

[peacebone]

From what I understand, "show" is a verb that takes both a direct object and an indirect object (at least, that's how we talk about it in my Latin and Greek classes). "It" is the direct object (i.e. the thing being shown) and "you" is the indirect object (the thing to which "it" is being shown). I don't know if "let me show you it" is technically incorrect, but "let me show it to you" makes this distinction much clearer.

[loudasthesun]

While I agree the second one is a little LOLcatty, both are fine to me.

I can see why the second one might seem ungrammatical or at least awkward to some, but if you replace "it" with a noun it sounds standard (I think):

- let me show you my treasures
- let me show you my house
- let me show you the wonders of the world

Maybe there's something about having two pronouns (with no preposition) being governed by the same verb?

[sjcarpediem]

That's a very good point and I thought having "too many pronouns" might have something to do with it, but it seems that even with two pronouns and no prep they're both grammatically correct...