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I would say "whom" today is reserved for formulaic usage. In 1912, Edward Sapir ("Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech") noted the death of "whom."
by einhverfr 14y ago
I would say "whom" today is reserved for formulaic usage.
In 1912, Edward Sapir ("Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech") noted the death of "whom." The example he gave was "Whom did you see yesterday" vs "Who did you see yesterday?"
Granted there are some cool things you can do with who/whom, like:
'Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae yer gory bed,
Or tae victorie.'
Of course that's 18th century Scottish and things have changed a bit....
- bane 14y agoSapir was exactly who I was thinking of. http://books.google.com/books?id=ofgrAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Language:+An+Introduction+to+the+Study+of+Speech&source=bl&ots=PooIswwyky&sig=Fm0p-qz7hfYrQd103LgFGWaRnsw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fHQJUJusGJK00QH14JXjAw&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Language%3A%20An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Study%20of%20Speech&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=ofgrAAAAYAAJ&printsec=f... Chapter 7 I believe is the relevant chapter.
- einhverfr 14y agoThat's a wonderful book isn't it? Really expands your ideas of what grammar is and could be.
- adavies42 14y agoThere's an Allan Sherman song ("When I Was a Lad") where one of the rhymes depends on who/whom: I learned who was going out with whom And who had the keys to the powder room
- adavies42 14y agoThere's also Lenin's famous line "Who? Whom?", which is a lot harder to translate without a "whom" available....