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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (1630)	11/27/1998 10:48:00 AM
From: Jack Clarke	Respond to of 4711

Anaxagoras, Investor2: Perhaps I'm being a twit, but let's examine the original sentence again: To whom was he referring?" I agree it's correct as it is, but whom is the object of the preposition to and not the indirect object. Anaxagoras probably made a typo since he clearly notes it is the object of the preposition in the same sentence. Picky, picky. Also I will take the prerogative of the "Pedant Thread" and correct his use of like as a conjunction ("like most ears are"). (Now you may correct me on where my last period was placed in relation to the parenthesis. I never can remember that rule.) But back to the original sentence. I think all we have to do to understand it is to change the clause from its inverted (interrogative) form to see that the pronoun has to be in the objective case: He was referring to whom, when made that accusation? I agree that we are losing the last vestiges of inflection in our language, and indeed we have progressed to two languages, the written and the spoken. It actually sounds stuffy and even pedantic to use "correct" written English in everyday speech. For example: Joe: "Hey, Jack, was that you I saw last night? Jack: "Yeah, that was I." Ridiculous, of course. I presented some of my thoughts in an earlier post: Message 3072276 One last comment on the verb refer. This is usually used intransitively with the preposition to, and means to make a verbal or other reference to a person or thing. But it can be used transitively in which case it takes the usual direct object: His doctor referred him to a specialist. BTW, there was a spirited discussion just recently on this thread about ending a sentence with a preposition. Here is the definitive statement: Message 6516534 Best, Jack

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (1630)	12/1/1998 4:44:00 PM
From: Investor2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

The following message was posted on another thread: "Stochastics has turned decidedly down." I noticed the use of "Stochastics" in the singular. Do you have any comments? Best wishes, I2 P.S. I also noticed that the SI spell checker prints the word Stochastics in the color red. If, on the other hand, the word "Stochastics" is placed within quotation marks, the SI spell checker prints the word in black.

To: Anaxagoras who wrote (1630)	12/1/1998 5:13:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4711

One should not use the passive when s/he can use the active instead, Stylistic Dictum #4339 itself stands in need of revision, as follows: One should not use the passive when one* can use the active instead.* The whole point of using "one" (which some people find pretentious) is to get out of that he/she dilemma. Incidentally, I am shocked to find that more and more descriptivists (among whom I would normally include myself) are now willing to allow the following barbarous construction: Everyone should avoid the passive when they* can use the active instead.* Yuck! I still can't stand that! For the time being, I will stick to he/she, but I see the end coming...More on that anon. jbe