Re^5: poll ideas quest 2015

I'm not a native speaker, but this "to" thing might come from speaking "to the point".
As for speak/talk "with" someone, probably the speaker wants to create an impression of wanting a dialogue ("to discuss" comes to mind). Or - he is german :-)

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Re^6: poll ideas quest 2015 by davies (Monsignor) on May 19, 2015 at 08:06 UTC
On your first point, I'm not clear which of (at least) two possibilities you mean. Yes, speech can be "to the point", meaning concise, but no, you cannot say "he will speak to the point of the budget deficit". That's a long winded version of the blunder example I gave and exacerbates the blunder by failing to be to the point. :-) On your second, I agree that the probable origin is confusion between monologue and dialogue forms. You might speak to me, but I don't have to listen. But if you are conversing with me, that implies I am listening and responding. Regards, John Davies	[reply]

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Re^6: poll ideas quest 2015
by davies (Monsignor) on May 19, 2015 at 08:06 UTC

On your first point, I'm not clear which of (at least) two possibilities you mean. Yes, speech can be "to the point", meaning concise, but no, you cannot say "he will speak to the point of the budget deficit". That's a long winded version of the blunder example I gave and exacerbates the blunder by failing to be to the point. :-)

On your second, I agree that the probable origin is confusion between monologue and dialogue forms. You might speak to me, but I don't have to listen. But if you are conversing with me, that implies I am listening and responding.

Regards,

John Davies

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