On my blog, bigwords 101<\/a>, I talked about the difference between linguistic and grammatical prescriptivism<\/em> and descriptivism:<\/em><\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prescriptivists<\/em> (the camp that I lean toward) think that the rules are there and they should be followed.<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Descriptivists<\/em> believe that language evolves as new usages come into play.<\/p>\n Well, if we followed a purely prescriptivist viewpoint, we would still be using the language of centuries ago\u00a0\u2013\u00a0thank you, Chaucer.<\/p>\n But what would happen if we followed a purely descriptivist viewpoint? How does language change, anyway?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at an example: I have always used the idiomatic prepositional phrase by accident<\/em>. The younger generation seems to be using on accident<\/em> instead. Is it wrong? Which is right? Should\u00a0we adopt what the younger generation is now using? Is there a reason that by<\/em> should be used rather than on<\/em>? Why did anyone start saying it that way in the first place? Is it because we say its opposite as on purpose<\/em>?<\/p>\n People use who<\/em> and whom<\/em> incorrectly because they don\u2019t know or understand the rule. Should we say, \u201cOh, let\u2019s just forget trying. It\u2019s just too difficult to teach or understand\u201d? Should we dumb down<\/em> the language? Or, should we avoid using whom<\/em>?<\/p>\n Taking who <\/em>and whom<\/em> specifically,\u00a0 there is a reason that who<\/em> is correct sometimes and whom<\/em> is correct other times. And most people studying a foreign language will run across the same thing in that language.<\/p>\n The distinction between who<\/em> and whom<\/em> is the same as the distinction between I <\/em>and me<\/em>. Are we now going to say \u201cMe<\/em> and him<\/em> went to the movies\u201d is okay? If many people say it that way, will that become the standard?<\/p>\n Then, there is the issue of conversation versus formal writing. Let\u2019s say you are writing a cover letter. Are you going to distinguish between who<\/em> and whom<\/em>? All the grammar books I know of make that distinction, at least as of now. I would recommend that anyone writing anything formal use the rules until they are \u201cformally\u201d changed.<\/p>\n The evolution of language is nothing new. And I won\u2019t pretend to know much about it. I am not a linguist, although I wish I were, and I find the subject fascinating. \u00a0I do know that there needs to be a mix of descriptivism and prescriptivism, as there always has been;\u00a0otherwise, the language would never have changed throughout the centuries. But where do we\u00a0draw the line?<\/p>\n But who<\/em> and whom<\/em>? That\u2019s where I <\/em><\/strong>draw the line!<\/p>\n Here is the difference between who <\/em>and whom<\/em>:<\/p>\n There are three cases for pronouns in the English language: Nominative, Objective, and Possessive.<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The nominative case is used for subjects of sentences (and predicate nominatives, but we won\u2019t go there today).<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The objective case is used for direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions, the three types of objects.<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The possessive case is used for ownership.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take the pronoun I<\/em>: nominative is I<\/em>; objective is me<\/em>; possessive is my<\/em> or mine.<\/em><\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I <\/em>am going to the movies.<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He took me<\/em> to the movies.<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He is mine<\/em>.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s take the pronoun who<\/em>: nominative is who<\/em>; objective is whom<\/em>; possessive is whose<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Who<\/em> is going\u00a0to\u00a0the movies? (Who<\/em> is the subject of the verb is\u00a0going<\/em>.)<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whom<\/em> did you invite to the movies? (Whom<\/em> is the direct object of the verb invite<\/em>.)<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To whom<\/em> did you give the movie tickets? (Whom i<\/em>s the object of the preposition to<\/em>.)<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whose<\/em> tickets\u00a0are they, anyway?<\/p>\n One thing is for sure. I will be teaching my students the difference between who and whom!<\/em><\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to read the original blog post “‘Whom’ Cares?” by Arlene Miller.<\/p>\n \u00a0 Arlene has been a presenter at the Sonoma County Book Festival, Bay Area Independent Publishing Association (BAIPA), Petaluma and Guerneville branches of the Sonoma County Library, Romance Writers of America, Society of Technical Communications, and Redwood Writers Academy. She is a member of Redwood Writers and BAIPA. She holds degrees in Print Media, English, Humanities, and California teaching and school administration credentials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Guest Blogger Arlene Miller writes: I am a member of some grammar groups on LinkedIn, where there\u00a0are fascinating \u2014 and long \u2013\u00a0discussions of what some people would call grammatical minutiae. However, this week, I saw a discussion that I found a little surprising. The question posed was \u201cShould we continue to teach who and whom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[554,555],"class_list":["post-1986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-arlene-miller","tag-bigwords101"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-w2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1986"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5751,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions\/5751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Arlene](\"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Arlene-Miller-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a><\/em>Arlene Miller<\/a>, also known as The Grammar Diva, is the author of four grammar books and a novel. Her first grammar book, The Best Little Grammar Book Ever,<\/em> is being used by many schools and colleges. Arlene’s grammar books clear up common grammar issues. In addition to writing books, Arlene writes a weekly blog post about grammar, punctuation, and anything else to do with words. She is also a copyeditor for both fiction and nonfiction books, teaches 7th grade English in Petaluma, teaches The Best Little Grammar Class Ever at College of Marin, and teaches corporate grammar and business writing workshops.<\/p>\n