"regardless of WHETHER" or "regardless WHETHER"?

Question

Is the preposition "of" necessary in "regardless of WHETHER"(appearing at the beginning of a complete sentence)? Thanks.

Wilpeter · Accepted Answer

I usually don't include "of" in that case.

Blue Jay · Answer

I always include it.
COCA lists 1149 matches for regardless of whether... and 30 for regardless whether....
BNC lists 149 matches for regardless of whether... and only 1 for regardless whether....

Wilpeter · Answer

Thanks, Blue Jay.  I really must learn how to find those fascinating statistics on general usage.  However, I likely am too set in my ways to be swayed to write the extra word.

Blue Jay · Answer

Here are the links. The Wiki one is new, and I haven't test driven it yet. The Corpora limit you to a certain amount of searches (15?) in one session if you don't log in. You have to close your browser and reopen it to continue, or open another browser. I have several browsers, so I rarely bother to log in. If you set up an account, don't use a password you use elsewhere, as they store passwords in plain text.
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/
http://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/
http://corpus.byu.edu/coha/
http://corpus.byu.edu/wiki/

https://books.google.com/ngrams

Wilpeter · Answer

Thanks, I think.  With all those precautions, I gather you trust their results.

Fivejedjon · Answer

wilpeter I gather you trust their results.

They are far more reliable than my intuition, which was all I had to rely on until these vast corpora became available. Checking with the corpora before I pronounce saves me from giving incorrect information at least once a week.

pd. I also find https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=regardless+of+whether%2C+regardless+whether&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cregardless%20of%20whether%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cregardless%20whether%3B%2Cc0 very useful: https://books.google.com/ngrams

Blue Jay · Answer

wilpeterThanks, I think. With all those precautions, I gather you trust their results.

Yes, I'm not criticizing the BYU Corpora themselves at all. They are a great resource. They prove me wrong sometimes before I post

. I'm just pointing out that some aspects of access to them are a little clunky. I find I rarely hit the limit, and if I do I simply open another browser and continue. I have them on speed-dial in both Chrome and Opera. When I first set up an account there I couldn't log in to it, and my request for help was brushed off. I ended up opening a new account using a different email address, and it works, though as I said I rarely bother to log in.
Many people use the same email/password combination on more than one site, so storing passwords in plain text is a poor security practice. If hackers manage to access the database they will have instant access to many other accounts. A site that doesn't salt and hash the passwords may well not be using the best practices to keep hackers out in the first place either. I am fairly careful about online security, so I make a point of telling people about sites that don't take security seriously. Chatango, who supply our Chat, are another site that stores passwords in plain text. EF on the other hand is fiercely protective of member information, and salts and hashes our passwords.

Wilpeter · Answer

OK, I've read that Google takes the data from over 8 million digitized books from many past centuries.  I couldn't find (yet) where everyday spoken English gets included in the stats or how archaic books are discounted from being given equal relevance to current usage.  I'll avoid making judgements however on which is the more used in posts. Thanks.

Blue Jay · Answer

Google NGram graphs usage over time, so you can see how usage has increased or decreased. You can compare two or more words or phrases at once. You can also specify the time period in which you are interested, for example "1950 to 2000". You don't get raw numbers in the way that you can from the Corpora, and it's a little more complicated to see the original context, since you have to follow the link to the Google book, while the Corpora list the snippets of text, but it is a very useful tool nonetheless.
If you start using the Corpora it is worthwhile to spend the time to figure out the search tools they contain, like wildcards, parts of speech, etc.
Here are some links to some other resources I find useful here. I have them set up as search engines in Chrome, so I can go straight to a definition from the search bar (this works better in some than others).
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
http://onelook.com/
http://www.forvo.com/
http://etymonline.com/
http://www.thesaurus.com/

Wilpeter · Answer

I'm definitely impressed, Blue Jay.

"regardless of WHETHER" or "regardless WHETHER"?

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