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English whom | ||
Tags: Morphology | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5565 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 33 of 63 18 December 2013 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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How can Metallica be a more relevant reference point than John Donne?
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| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4290 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 34 of 63 18 December 2013 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I am in my mid-twenties, and I use "whom" due to my drilling in primary school, so I
think that it depends on if this concept was emphasised in one's formative education. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4622 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 35 of 63 19 December 2013 at 12:13am | IP Logged | |||||
I think Metallica are far more culturally significant than John Donne, who(m) I've never heard of. Seriously though, some of the in-depth grammatical analysis on this thread has got me baffled. I am completely unable to apply complex labels to my own language. I never learned to do this, I guess I was too busy speaking English. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 36 of 63 19 December 2013 at 12:14am | IP Logged | |||||
Because I've listened to Metallica tons but never heard of John Donne. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3997 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 37 of 63 19 December 2013 at 3:11am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm in my 20s if that helps. Although I sometimes hear guys in their early 40s say "dude." I just say "brah" sometimes to poke fun at a friend. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5066 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 38 of 63 19 December 2013 at 4:55am | IP Logged | |||||
Agreed. And I use whom when I feel like it, more often than not in writing. In speech, virtually never. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 39 of 63 19 December 2013 at 6:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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American here - West Coast. Whom is not common, but not extinct either. The younger set (brah, I'm talking to you, dude) may not use it at all by the sounds of it. I see it more in written form; probably almost exclusively if I really think about it. It tends to sound overly formal, or worse, that one is trying to sound overly formal, so I try to avoid it myself.
What I find amusing is when people overuse whom in attempt to sound really, really smart and just substitute it for who as if it were just a more formal version of the same word. I have never heard of Metallica's song, and I have always attributed the saying to Hemingway's book. I've heard of John Donne but I never knew he wrote the line originally. I learn something new every time I am on this forum! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5228 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 40 of 63 19 December 2013 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hypercorrection is one of the funniest linguistic phenomena, to be sure. Coo duh grah and octopi indeed. I'm from New Jersey originally, for the record. My usage of "whom" went from non-existent to occasional as I started to learn foreign languages (and to appreciate grammar). I do use it speaking now, and in a natural fashion, most often when trying to add stress to an inquiry. Interestingly, the primary reason is probably interference with Latin. The Latin accusative of the interrogative pronoun is quem and quam, which is remarkably similar to the proper English dative (the parent of whom), although the two are historically separate. Look at the PIE version of the interrogative pronoun. Accusative: *kʷim Dative: *kʷesmey Note the common m. Edited by ScottScheule on 19 December 2013 at 9:17pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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