murky days on the WHO/WHOM front

[Beverly Flanigan]

I think we've mentioned before that an intervening clause like "I think"
seems to trigger 'whom' even more, with the /m/ serving as liaison with the
following vowel.  I've heard "whomever" even more in subject position,
whether following a prep. or not (and the /m/ may serve as liaison for some
people here too).  Is the reanalysis in part morphophonemic, perhaps?  If
so, I would expect "Regardless of whom is blamed."

At 09:17 PM 3/27/02 -0800, you wrote:
>from a letter today (3/27/02) to the New York Times, from
>Marc F. Bernstein, Chief Academic Officer, Kaplan K12
>Learning Services, New York, about funding for New York City
>schools:
>
>  Regardless of whom should be blamed, it's the students who
>  will suffer.
>
>i wonder if he'd have committed himself to something like
>  Regardless of whom is blamed,...
>
>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm