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Is "Everyone is welcome along." a valid English sentence?
My English grammaticality is basic at best and I'm not sure how to even research this...
EDIT: I'm adding a bounty, and I'd like to know why, if "Everyone is welcome along," is ungrammatical, the similar phrase "Everyone is welcome aboard" is grammatical. Both along and aboard can be adverbs, so why can't both be used as an adverb here. (Or are both grammatical, but one is just unidiomatic?)
I want to say no, but I can't back that up with a "why," aside from the fact that I've never heard it before.
However, "you're welcome to come along" definitely is acceptable and commonly used. It is used when, say, someone's going to the store to buy something. They may say to their friend, "you're welcome to come along," if they desire (or wouldn't mind) their friend's company to the store.
(EDIT: That said, I don't think that "everyone is welcome along" would be totally unheard of. The context I would expect that to be in similar context to "everyone is welcome to come along," above.)
There is absolutely nothing ungrammatical about "welcome along" whatsoever.
The performative adjective "welcome" standardly takes locative preposition phrases as Complements. The preposition phrase indicates the location of the speaker or that which the addressee is headed towards. Sometimes the prepositions take noun phrase Complements, sometimes they take preposition phrases as Complements and sometimes they take no Complement at all—in other words they are intransitive. Here are some examples with preposition phrases containing noun phrase Complements:
Some examples with prepositions taking preposition phrase Complements:
Some examples with intransitive uses of prepositions:
Welcome along is particularly used when somebody is being welcomed to an activity or journey for the first time. We find, therefore examples such as this one from the University of Edinburgh with the title "Welcome along /back" where they greet new students and welcome back returning ones.
As "welcome" is a performative (by saying the word you perform the action it describes), it is far more common in spoken English and on signs and brochures than in formal written texts. There's not much point in looking up such phrases on Google books therefore.
Welcome along is certainly not formal in tone. However, that is completely irrelevant to whether it is grammatical or not. It is, of course, perfectly grammatical. How do we know? Because native speakers of English use it!
Thanks to Mari-Lou A for Welcome home
Everyone is welcome aboard [the ship, vessel, plane, etc. or metaphor thereof].
/The captain welcomed guests aboard [the ship]/.
In that sentence, aboard is a preposition in the implied phrase. It is not a single adverb as it would be in: to ships came close aboard. It's an adverbial phrase.
/Everyone is welcome to come along [with me, them, etc.]/ is grammatical. Leaving out the to is non-standard and may be regional. I have never heard it before reading it here. For me, to /come along/ is either a semi-phrasal verb or a prepositional phrase.
/They are welcome to come along [with you]/: semi-phrasal verb in an implied preposition phrase.
/They came along later in the day [to the school]/: a semi-phrasal verb, often seen in BrE, to mean come to a place. Similar to pop around and show up (AmE). Same as previous sentence.
come along is the semi-phrasal verb for the non-phrasal verb accompany: /He came along to the school with me/ = He accompanied me to the school.
For me, a semi-phrasal means the verb actually implies a prepositional phrase that has been dropped over time.
For example: to stand up meaning to stand on one's feet in a vertical position is not a semi-phrasal verb versus to come along [with me] is.
The implied prepositional phrases are adverbial.
A usage summary, using online tools. Books: no. Newspapers: mainly no. Web: yes. Therefore it's more of a casual usage, not formal. Details...
Google Ngram for "Everyone is welcome along" searches a great many scanned books, but returns 0 hits.
A search of Google's current newspaper database turns up one near hit:
Everyone in the congregation is welcome along with anyone in the community who likes fellowship and fun.
But note the implied comma after "welcome", i.e.:
Everyone ... is welcome, along with anyone ... who likes ...
(Since there's no dangling "along", that's not a match.)
Plenty of hits out there on the web however:
Everyone is welcome along to the special event.
Everyone is welcome along in support.
everyone is welcome along for the ride.
Everyone is welcome along to learn
Everyone is welcome along!
It is valid. And used. Perhaps if you Google "welcome along" you will be convinced of this...
Please take a look at the upcoming fundraising Events & Sponsorship - everyone is welcome along to events and if you would like to take part or get involved get in touch.
.
Reception Class Assembly
Our Reception Class will be performing their assembly this Wednesday afternoon and all Parents and Carers are welcome along to watch.
And many more.
Yes, it is valid. I did a quick search and found "Everyone is welcome along" in newsletter/event announcement contexts, however none of them appeared to be American. The usage may not be regional to the United States, but from what I found in "social media" genre usage (casual register) that included audiences in Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and a few sites with the ".uk" suffix, it is valid.
I think U.S. English users are more accustomed to the "to come" inserted before the "along" OR they want the "along" to be followed by another phrase like "for the ride", or "to the fair". My guess is, as you have written it above, it feels incomplete to American ears and tongues, but I believe it is an issue of regionality, or of being regionally dialectic, or dialectically regional...or should I should I just say "regional" or "dialect"...? (And no, I'm not talking about Hegel's hood. Please forgive me my linguistic dilletantishness - or is it dillettantism - and my qua linguistic cant.)
Nonetheless, I don't think it has to do with a naturally occurring gap, in which case if it does, it would still be grammatical, or not ungrammatical; that is to say a naturally occurring gap, though not of standardized (or standard) usage, could indicate this is an emerging form that has yet to be analyzed and formally codified.
But, if its formality and codification you want, enjoy the following:
-- From my old and fabulous 1971 Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary:
along adv 3: as a companion or associate
< brought his wife ~ >
So, with this usage (or is it use?) the substitution works:
Everyone is welcome along. = Everyone is welcome _____ (as a companion or associate).
p.s. I do like the way you chose grammaticality in your question, and that you tagged it as such. I've always understood that term to describe one's own meta-awareness and level of facility with a grammar; referring to one's own fluency as a user of grammar. I didn't realize that this forum defines it as referring to an utterance and its conformity to grammar. Your question, to me, is asking three things; you're wanting to check your own grammaticality, and the grammaticality of the sentence, while you're also asking for proof. Perhaps next time, tag for both grammaticality and grammar, lest your nonconformity to tagging etiquette irk the ire of those who would accuse you of opportunistic pendanticality. = )
In the context the word "along" is unnecessary, meaningless and irritating. Unfortunately, however, that does not make it ungrammatical.
It is used increasingly by radio and television presenters. When I am sitting at home listening or watching, I appreciate being welcomed – but I have no intention of going "along" anywhere.
