A Tricky Who-Whom Construction
Here’s the sentence, from a guy I read regularly:
This isn’t about Suzi, but her predecessor, Vaska, a Rhodesian ridgeback who was very good on leash but would nearly tear my arm from its socket if he spotted the letter carrier, who he knew carried doggy cookies.
Toward the end: “who he [the dog] knew carried doggie cookies.”
Shouldn’t that be “whom” before “he knew”? He knew him, right?
Nope!
The rule is you go from the inside out. The dog knew he carried doggie cookies. “Who” is the subject of the subordiante clause, “who carried doggie cookies,” and he is the subject of the main clause, “he knew.”
Tricky tricky. Don’t let the word order fool you!
Here’s a slightly related comic from that essay because I like to have pictures in my posts.
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Did I Win an Argument?
Several years ago I began to read Mike Peterson’s excellent daily essay (editorial? article? blog?) named Comic Strip of the Day. (Look for the ones that start with CSotD.) I read it as faithfully as I read A Word A Day. Mike and I don’t necessarily always see eye to eye on politics, but I think that reading material I don’t necessarily agree with keeps me open-minded, and his stuff is thoughtful and well written, not the opinionated drivel I see in places like comment streams.
Anyway, early on, I read a misuse of the expression “beg the question,” so I wrote him a note about it. He did me the courtesy of a reply, saying, if I remember correctly, that everybody uses the expression that way nowadays, so he felt okay with that usage. That was the end of it; we didn’t have an actual argument.
Recently I ran into this: (the italics are his)
This prompts ( but does not beg ) the question of why they would hire Molly Ivins in the first place.
http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/06/11/csotd-grey-lady-down/
Yay! To logicians and us curmudgeons, “prompts” is correct, “begs” is not. Good for him!
Here are a couple links to some of my posts on the subject in case you’re curious to know what I’m talking about:
What does “Beg the Question” Mean?
More Question Begging
Getting Things Right
Abbreviations are Words!
Thought I’d share something that I noticed the other day. We treat abbreviations as if they were words separate from the phrase they represent. Here’s the sentence that I noticed:
Coincidentally, I used a clip from “Stalag 17” yesterday, and, in the movie version, Peter Graves plays a rat who is collaborating with government forces to betray Allied POWs.
http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/02/27/csotd-piercing-the-cohen-of-silence/
What’s the plural of “prisoner of war”? It’s “prisoners of war.” But what’s the plural of “POW”? Yup, it’s “POWs.”—That certainly doesn’t mean “prisoner of wars.”
The plurals of “attorney general” and “court martial” both put the “s” on the first word, but after the abbreviation. Well, I’ve seen “AG” used for “attorney general.” I haven’t actually run into “CM,” though I suppose it could happen.
Not much of a lesson, but I thought I’d share. Can you think of any other examples? Put them in the comments.
Who and That
Here’s the rule: “Who” refers to people, “that” refers to everything else. So you say,
The person who sits next to me stinks.
Not
The person that sits next to me stinks.
Okay, maybe you shouldn’t say either sentence, but you get the idea.
I ran into an exception that works. Maybe we could call this personification. After all, aren’t dogs really people?
Besides, Mike Peterson, of Comic Strip of the Day is a dog person, so maybe that’s a good excuse, too.
PS—Unrelated bonus article: I don’t do politics here, but this appeared yesterday in The Washington Post and it’s about an English teacher correcting someone’s writing. I guess I gotta be proud.
Some Light Reading
Think you could you change this using “reed,” “leed,” “red,” and “led”?
Thank you, Soup to Nutz, for the diversion.
(Yes, “leed” is a word (so is “lede”). Look it up.)
PS—Another blogger whom I read regularly recently commented on this strip, too. He takes a rather different approach to the funnies than I do, but still… Here’s the link to the correct Comic Strip of the Day.
