Even though it's becoming a common construction, it doesn't make sense to say, e.g., I'm going to try and do it. One doesn't "try and do something", one "tries to do something". The error becomes apparent in different tenses, where verb conjugation gives sentences entirely different meanings when "and" is thus used incorrectly.
Wrong: Billy tries and scores a goal.
Right: Billy tries to score a goal.
Wrong: I'm going to try and pass the class.
Right: I'm going to try to pass the class.
Wrong: Saddam tried and hid his weapons of mass destruction.
Right: Saddam tried to hide his weapons of mass destruction.
Wrong: We're all trying and doing our best.
Right: We're all trying to do our best.
&c. I often see this strange construction in official documents, journal articles, news reports, and obviously in everyday speech. I'm sure I've used it before myself (eek), but henceforth I'm going to try and not.
It probably arises from an aspect of phonology called assimilation, whereby phonemes at the end of one word and the beginning of the next blend together. People generally prefer smooth assimilation to rough assimilation. "To try and do" is smoother than "to try to do," which involves a stop consonant on every word (making assimilation difficult). "And" serves as a sort of colloquial approximation of "to" in this case.
Good stuff here, lately, btw. I'm still reading.
Hey Mark! I'm glad you're still around. Be sure to let me know if you start blogging again.
Wrong: Billy tries and scores a goal.
Right: Billy tries to score a goal.
I do not consider the construction as "wrong".
Billy tries and [Billy] scores a goal.
Written in the "here and now" as it unfolds.
Jack: Yes, as I said, the error is apparent because it changes the meaning of the sentence in some tenses.
Applying logic to an idiom is a losing game. Double negatives were a perfectly acceptable form of emphasis in Middle English until the schoolmarms tried to impose a latinate grammar on the language. I've found at least two *quadruple* negatives in Chaucer, for example. And they're still used for emphasis in French and Russian.
Oh yeah? Well, how about "Judge Lynch tried and hung the rustler" then?
It would be "tried and hanged", but yes, you're right :)
I think a sentence like "John will try and X" conveys a certain level of optimism as to his chances of success that are absent froom "John will try to X." The former suggests that the speaker expects John to succeed, while the latter does not.
That optimism makes little sense when speaking in the past tense. Once the effort has been completed, John either succeeded, in which case he Xed, or he failed, in which case he "tried to X."
Xrlq: I think a sense of optimism may arise more from tone and context than from the words themselves. To me, at least, "try and" doesn't connote any inherent optimism.
Really? Consider the Eagles song, (Gonna) Try and Love Again. Now suppose they had sang instead "Ooh, gonna try to love again."
To me, the former connotes that he's going to take a stab at loving again, and see what that brings. The latter suggests that he may or may not be capable of loving again, but what the hell, he'll give it a shot.
"Do, or do not. No try."
- Yoda