how should I correct this sentence? about case

andysiu · Post by **andysiu** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 12:51 pm

Hello,

What is the structure of this sentecne?

ii. Please ask the students whom you think know the answer to the question.

I think the correction should remove (you think), am I right? but how could I analyse this correction?

thanks

andy

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:37 am

The sentence should in fact read '...WHO you think...' since 'who' is the subject of the verb phrase 'know the answer', and not its object (nor even that of 'think').

This misuse of objective-case 'whom' represents a linguistic phenomenon known as 'hypercorrection', or the deliberate supplantation of a simpler, but grammatically appropriate, form for a grammatically inapproriate one that supposedly sounds more 'sophisticated'.

Another common instance of this is '*between you and I' for grammatical 'between you and ME'.

I hope this answers your question.