Monday, June 26, 2023

The Prepositional A and the Book of Mormon

 In Solomon Clinton Stephens, The Philosophy of the Earth and of Man (Ogden, Utah: W.W. Browning & Co., 1898), 60-61, we read:

 

I remember reading a little story about Cupid going a fishing

 

He found a pin, so the story goes, and bent it into a book. Then called for all the fishes to come and bite. The birds and beasts, and flowers and all smiled in joy. When, at that time, Cupid saw a maiden come tripping down the meadow, sly Cupid left and said, “I’ll come another day.” The maiden came and sat down by Cupid’s hook and said, “Oh! what a pretty world!” and just at that time she shrieked out, “I am caught, I am caught!” And Cupid heard and said, “Love does bait every hook as fishes swim in every brook.”

 

The use of the "prepositional a" reminded me of an article a friend, Don Neighbors, wrote years ago for FAIR that discusses the removal of the "prepositional a" and other grammatical issues and changes in the Book of Mormon:


The Book of Mormon vs. the Critics: Nit-Picking for Fun and Profit