GRAMMAR RULES
There are no exercises this time, just the rules. Study them and memorize them; first, because the more rules you know the easier it will be for you to navigate the wide world of words; and second, because you’ll be given exercises on Monday, November 26th (REMEMBER: We’re not meeting the Monday after Thanksgiving; instead, we’ll have an online class.)
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WHO & WHOM |
| Who is correct? Yes, though it may depend on whom you ask! |
| “Who” and “whoever” are subjective pronouns; “whom” and “whomever” are in the objective case. As simple and important as that distinction is, many people have difficulty deciding on the proper usage of “who” and “whom” in sentences. The two sentences below illustrate the easy usage in which “who” is clearly the subject and “whom” is clearly the object. In such simple cases, virtually everyone can determine the proper choice: Who is that masked man? (subject) The men, four of whom are ill, were indicted for fraud. (object) When “who” is not the main subject of the sentence, however, many people become confused. They tinker and change who to “whom.” It was Thomas Jefferson, I think, who was the third president of the United States. Notice that “who,” not “whom,” is still the correct form as the subject of the clause that follows. The proper name, Thomas Jefferson, could be substituted for “who” to make a perfectly good sentence: Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States. As a ready check in such sentences, simply substitute the personal pronoun “he/him” or “she/her” for “who/whom.” If he or she would be the correct form, the proper choice is who.” If “him” or “her” would be correct, use “whom.” This technique of substituting a personal pronoun for the relative pronoun works nicely whenever you have difficulty deciding whether to use “who” or “whom,” assuming that you have no difficulty using the proper form of personal pronouns. Even when the word order must be altered slightly, you can use the technique: Mrs. Dimwit consulted an astrologer whom she met in Seattle. (She met him in Seattle.) Jones is the man whom I went fishing with last spring. (I went fishing with him.) Joyce is the girl who got the job. (She got the job.) Whom can we turn to in a time of crisis? (Can we turn to her?) The delegates differed as to who they thought might win. (Not whom. Here the entire clause is the object of the preposition. Substitution is particularly helpful in cases such as this. They thought he might win.) Who is that masked man? (subject) The men, four of whom are ill, were indicted for fraud. (object)
Three “easy-to-use” rules
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(courtesy of Wonderful World of Editing)
DOUBLE POSSESSIVE
July 25, 2007 at 10:41 pm. This is an article from World Wide Words (www.worldwidewords.org) on double possessive (it’s also called post-genitive). Double possessive has been around since the fifteenth century, and is widely accepted. It’s extremely helpful, for instance, in distinguishing between “a picture of my father” (in which we see the old man) and “a picture of my father’s” (which he owns). Native speakers will note how much more natural it is to say “He’s a fan of hers” than “he’s a fan of her.” DOUBLE POSSESSIVE[Q] From Frances Pack: “You recently wrote ‘a friend of Pope’s’. What? Do I not remember correctly that Pope’s is already possessive — so the use of of before it makes a double possessive? That was drummed into my ears when I was a freshman in high school in Latin I class. Curious — because I sometimes slip and write it that way — then have to go back and “correct” it. Is this no longer the rule?”[A] It never was. You’ve been led into a misunderstanding, as some grammarians of the eighteenth century were, by trying to apply the rules of Latin to English, where they don’t fit. It must be said that disputes about it are unrelated to effective communication, since nobody would ever fail to understand “a friend of Pope’s”.You can immediately see that the construction is valid in English by replacing the noun with a pronoun. You wouldn’t say or write “a friend of you” or “a friend of me” — that is, not if you wanted to be thought capable of composing acceptable standard English. If “a friend of mine” is good English, why not “a friend of Pope’s”?The technical name for this construction is double genitive or double possessive (it has also been called the appositional of-phrase, and the post-genitive). It’s of great age — examples are to be found in writings of the fourteenth century; by the eighteenth century it was common and unremarkable. This instance, picked pretty much at random but showing both forms of the idiom, is from Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield: “An aunt of my father’s, and consequently a great-aunt of mine, of whom I shall have more to relate by and by, was the principal magnate of our family.”In particular, grammarians say a double possessive is essential to avoid giving the wrong meaning when a word indicating ownership is placed after of, as “a bone of the dog’s”. The extra possessive is required because “a bone of the dog” means, not a bone in the possession of the dog, but one inside the dog. “A picture of Jane” means an image of Jane, whereas “a picture of Jane’s” is a picture of any sort that happens to be owned by Jane.But there are some limitations. The phrase has to be indefinite — “a friend of Pope’s” is OK, but if I meant a particular one I would have had to write “the friend of Pope” or “Pope’s friend”; also, “a friend of ours” is idiomatic, but not “the friends of ours”, which would have to recast as “our friends”. And the second noun must be human, or at least animate, and also definite — so you can’t say “a friend of the British Library’s” or “a lover of the furniture’s”.What’s fascinating about all this, and one reason why I’ve gone into so much detail, is that the rules are precise and strict and are understood and followed by every speaker of idiomatic English, even though they’re not usually taught in school. Fluent speakers don’t know they know them and couldn’t explain them, say to someone learning the language, but they know immediately when they’ve been broken. Native speakers pick up the rules for using such idioms by example and experience and only suffer confusion when these real-life rules conflict with the ones that grammarians of an earlier period would have had us believe were correct.
If you feel these rules to be arbitrary and unreasonable, the only response I can make is that it’s an idiom and that’s just the way things are. Robert Burchfield says at the end of his entry on it in the Third Edition of Fowler, “It is not easy to explain why such constructions are idiomatic: one can only assert that they are.”
THE COLON:
Definition: The colon is used to introduce a strong pause within a sentence. It is the longest pause short of a full stop.
Examples:The colon is used to introduce a list: The car has a number of optional extras: sun roof, tinted windows, rear seat belts, and electrically operated wing mirrors. The colon is also used before a long quotation or a speech: Speaking at Caesar’s funeral, Anthony addresses the crowd: “Friends, Romans, countrymen …” It is also used before a clause which explains the previous statement: The school is highly regarded: academic standards are high, the staff are pleasant, and the students enjoy going there. Use The colon can be used to provide emphasis, or to create dramatic effect: There can be only one reason for this problem: his total incompetence. It is also used at the end of a statement which is followed by an illustration: The vase contains beautiful flowers: roses, tulips, and daffodils. Notice that the items which follow a list are punctuated with commas if they are a succession of individual words. You will need four ingredients: flour, butter, milk, and sugar. If the items in the list contain clauses or phrases these may be punctuated with semicolon: You will need the following materials: some scrap paper; a pen, preferably blue or black; some envelopes; and some good, white, unlined writing paper. The colon requires careful handling. If you are in any doubt, use separate sentences. The colon is also used between the title and the sub-title of a book: Magical Realism: Latin-American fiction today.
PARENTHESIS
See you Monday.
Prof. K
