I sing old-time songs,because I really am an old timer. I am stuck with all sorts of pedantic grammatical baggage. Does anyone believe any of these rules?
You can stand in the dock (in court), but you can't stand ON a dock unless it's a dry dock, because a dock is where the water is. Hence "dockside" but not "wharfside."
You can't be "more specific", because you can't "more specify" something.It's a false comparative.
It's OK to say "the delay, DUE TO the thunderstorm, lasted 3 hours", but "due to" is adjectival, so it's not OK to say "the game was delayed, due to the thunderstorm. (You need "because of".)
You TAKE the basket to the picnic and you BRING it back. In mud cat parlance "bring back my bonnie TO me."
As an old-timer I also find myself defending constructions to which others object. Anyone object to these:
It's a RIGHT pretty day.("Right" means "very", just as in "right reverend Dimesdale.")I sang it WRONG."wrong" means "wrongly" just as in "the divine right of kings to govern wrong".
The house needs PAINTED. The infinitive is understood and hence omitted just as in "The dog wants out" or " I now pronounce you man and wife."