Re: Turn off the monitor vs turn the monitor off

[Robert Hodgins <ehodgins -at- telusplanet -dot- net>]

Could a rationalization be found in the following:

"Turn the monitor around" versus "Turn around the monitor"?

And no, I did not bother checking any resources before suggesting this.
One just seems to be less offensive.

On Mon, 2009-01-05 at 15:56 -0500, Peter Neilson wrote:
> On the one hand, if English is based fundamentally on Latin then 
> prepositions are particles that appear before nouns. They are 
> "pre-positioned". In that case it makes little sense to the hopelessly 
> pedantic (or perhaps foreign-educated) writer to have a preposition with 
> nothing after it.
> 
> On the other hand, if English is a Germanic language then it seems 
> reasonable to have separable verbs. "Machen sie bitte das Licht aus," 
> (that's turn please the light off) is the correct form in German; the 
> verb is ausmachen, to turn off. Dashing the hopes of Teutonophiles, 
> though, I must remark that English does not seem to have any verbs that 
> look remotely like offturn.
> 
> On the third hand, some say that it is both and neither. Its rules might 
> as well come from Mars. My Hispanic friends who are trying to learn 
> English seem to do best if they "just learn it" and do not seek reasons.
> 
> -Peter "am rinkter Hand" Neilson
> 
> Nancy Allison wrote:
> > A friend is asking me what the rule is (or if there is one) that 
> > determines whether you write "Turn the monitor off" or "Turn off the 
> > monitor."
> > 
> > I know "turn off" is a two-word verb (it has a meaning that is not 
> > expressed by the word "turn" alone). And, I suspect that "Turn off the 
> > monitor" is generally preferred . . . .  but I dunno why I think that, 
> > except that it might be a little easier for non-native English speakers 
> > to follow, assuming that a reader might have poor English skills.
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