He -- and only he -- is/are in the room.
Aargh -- you've got me all confused! [Insert smiley face here.]
No matter how hard I look at that sentence, I see only one pronoun, only one subject of the verb. (I -- and ONLY I -- see that.)
In my view, "and ONLY he" is a parenthetical phrase, and is in the sentence purely for emphasis. That's why I separated the phrase from the rest of the sentence with dashes. And I capitalized "only" to indicate that, in speaking, that word would be stressed.
It's a more emphatic way of saying: "He is the only person in the room."
Imagine the following scenario. Joe told you that a whole bunch of people were coming to an important meeting in the conference room, and that you should come too. You cancel another engagement, just so that you can attend Joe's meeting. You arrive, and lo and behold, there's nobody there but Joe. Later, speaking to a friend, you tell him: "I broke my neck to get there on time. But when I arrived, he -- and ONLY he -- was in the room."
That is, Joe, that low-down dog, was the only person in the room.
Well?
jbe |
