Did I catch a grammar error in Wilkie Collins' novel "I Say No"?
Let's back up a moment.
I learned grammar and usage the hard, old-fashioned way--having my mom and older brother correct me whenever I uttered something egregious. Mom's technique was unvarying: When I said, oh, "It was me," she would purse her lips and say something like this--as if it were part of a normal conversation--"No, I think it was I."
Soon, I felt there wasn't a lot of purpose in my saying anything, for I very often got the pursed lips and the correction.
Once I got into elementary school, though, I found I didn't need to study for usage tests. As I looked at the multiple-choice items, I would think: What would Mom say?
This worked fine--until I got into high school, into Latin I (1958-59), and realized that although I generally knew the correct choice, I had no idea why it was the correct choice. To say the least, that ignorance retarded my progress.
Later--an English teacher--I began to learn: After all, I had to make sure the kids understood what I was teaching them. (Let's not get into how well I succeeded--or didn't.)
And I have to admit that to this very day I am still learning some intricacies of usage. (Does me a lot of good, eh?)
Okay, back to Wilkie Collins (1824-99). As some of you know, I've been reading my way, slowly, through his novels--though I began my journey with his two most famous ones (The Moonstone, The Woman in White). When I finished them, I knew I was going to have to read them all. (And I'm nearly finished.)
The most recent one, as I mentioned at the top, is "I Say No" (1884), and reading Chapter LI the other night, I "heard" an educated character say this: "'I'm afraid I have an idea of whom that person was'" (Pocket Classics edition, 213). I've underlined the whom to pinpoint the problem.*
I know that the word there should be who.** Did Wilkie make an error?
I was going to write a post about it, then wondered: "What if it's just a copy-edited error in the particular edition I'm reading?"
So I checked online, found some digital versions of the novel, and learned that--yes!--it was an error in transcription. My hero was still perfect!
Not that I'm a Grammar Nazi. No, I've read enough to realize that writers play with the "rules" all the time--those "rules" that, of course, we made up. Moses did not carry grammar/usage rules down the mountain with those stone tablets.
And I also know that punctuation, grammar, usage--all change, evolve.
I've published nearly 2000 book reviews over the years, and in the books I read I now frequently see alright instead of all right (a no-no in my school days); I frequently see "He's as wise as me" instead of "He's as wise as I"; I see constructions like this: "Everyone should bring their pencils." And numerous others.
So it goes.
Great writers often start sentences with and or but; they often employ comma-splices; they use the passive voice; they frequently use fragments; they end sentences with prepositions; etc. (Would you really want Grammar Nazis to have their way with, oh, Shakespeare?)
(I know: There's a difference between intentional "errors" and unintentional ones. But still ....)
We're not the same critters we were 100,000 years ago; our language and its rules are not the same either.
Frequently I need to consult the other retired English teacher in the house about an issue (and, far more rarely, vice-versa). If I'm going to break a rule, I want to know what that rule is! Then, if someone points it out, I can sneer and say, "I knew that!"
**
*The who-whom, whoever-whomever distinction is dying, I know. A lot of times I hear/read people who practice what's called hypercorrection--using something that they think sounds more "correct," but it actually isn't. Examples: between you and I, and using whom instead of who even though the latter may be the correct version.
**To decide which form, look only at the clause that the who-whom is in--ignore the words near it (like of). In this case that clause is "who/whom that person was."
No comments:
Post a Comment