Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Philosophise and sanitise

While cleaning this morning I remembered something Wendy said when we were on holiday. I had been grumbling about temporary deafness (we were climbing a mountain at the time) (in a car) and she said, 'What you need is a candle.'
'Oh,' says I.
'Yes,' she says. 'You stick it in your ear and light it.'

Which reminds of the old monologue that used to be played frequently on the wireless when I was a girl, involving an imagined telephone conversation (i.e. you only hear one side) with Sir Walter Raleigh. He, whom you can't hear, is obviously explaining his new discovery - cigarettes.
'So, have I got this right, Walt? What you're saying is that you roll it up, put in your mouth and set fire to it.'

Whoa, two squirrels just went l for leather down the front steps.

Only one has come back. He must have been seeing the other off. 'You leave my nuts alone, you bad squirrel. Thy are mine, all mine.' (That is said in an Eccles accent.) (Eccles goon not place.)

I am still a girl at heart.

Now I have set myself a grammatical conundrum. I wrote "He, whom you can't hear..." because you can't hear him i.e. object, but I am talking about He i.e. subject.

I would be grateful if any English graduates out there (preferably but not necessarily with first class honours degrees) would comment.

Of course, I could just rewrite the sentence in a completely different form. But where's the challenge in that?

I am depressed; have I mentioned that? I received another rejection this morning. This time for a short story. First time round they sent it straight back saying it was too downbeat; I rewrote it, they kept it for six weeks and now they say it's not a suitable storyline.

It's a good job the sun shining. And Wales will beat Australia on Saturday; I have faith.

7 comments:

Anna said...

I think you use 'whom' with him, her, them; and 'who' with he, she, they. I read this somewhere but I don't know where. Now I have to look it up.

Aha!

"Personal pronouns, as well as the pronoun 'who', change form as they function as subject or object."

'He' is subject, 'him' is object, so therefore use 'who' for subject and 'whom' for object. Yay me!

Also, Wynford Hicks (hick with radical but apparently modern ideas) says that who is replacing whom in speech and writing nowadays. So do as you please.

Anna said...

Yes, I didn't really tie that up - it should definitely be 'Him, whom you can't hear' but that sounds peculiar so 'He, who you can't hear' would be acceptable and sounds best.

Liz Hinds said...

No, that's not right. It can't be Him, whom ... because the He is the subject of the sentence He is explaining his discovery.

He, who ... sounds best in modern parlance but I prefer He, whom ... and I am more and more convinced that it is right.

Anna said...

But it's not whether the sentence is subjective or objective, it's whether the noun is subjective or objective, and 'he' is subject so you have to use who. Otherwise you are mixing. And why is God an object? He is a subject, surely? In any case, you just can't use 'he' with 'whom' (and why do you want to add the 'm' anyway?). It means the same. And that's that.

Anna said...

Also, you can use 'whom' after a proposition so you could put 'He, to whom...' or 'He, with whom...' but not 'He, whom' - it's naughty!

Liz Hinds said...

I'm not convinced and what's God got to do with it.

Anna said...

Now you listen here, young lady! "He" is subjective, and therefore you must use "who" and not "whom". You don't get to choose what you like best, otherwise we would have no system or logic. And we don't want that, do we? What would Lynne Truss say? Behave! The End.