which its = "whose"

Sat Jun 14 11:52:07 UTC 2014

I've been hearing it in TN since the '70s. I don't recall it from NYC, but
I may not have known the right people.

JL

On Fri, Jun 13, 2014 at 11:15 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: which its = "whose"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've heard sentences like
>
> We were going to have a picnic Saturday, which it rained, so we stayed
> home=
> .
>
> I don't know what its regional distribution is, but most instances I've
> heard have come from NW Ohio.
>
> Herb
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 13, 2014 at 3:39 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
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> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: which its =3D "whose"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > Ah, I see the OED's entry at 14b, citing the same source inter alia:
> >
> > Hence, in vulgar use, without any antecedent, as a mere connective or
> > introductory particle.
> >
> > 1723   Swift Mary the Cook-maid's Let. 13   Which, and I am sure I have
> > been his servant four years since October, And he never call'd me worse
> > than sweetheart, drunk or sober.
> > 1862   Thackeray Philip xvi,   =E2=80=98That noble young
> fellow=E2=80=99,=
>  says my
> > general... Which noble his conduct I own it has been.
> > 1870   B. Harte Truthful James, Answ. to Let. viii,   Which I have a
> smal=
> l
> > favor to ask you, As concerns a bull-pup, which the same,=E2=80=94If the
> =
> duty would
> > not overtask you,=E2=80=94You would please to procure for me, game.
> > 1905   Daily Chron. 21 Oct. 4/7   If anything 'appens to
> you=E2=80=94whic=
> h God be
> > between you and 'arm=E2=80=94I'll look after the kids.
> >
> > So is the current extended "mere connective or introductory particle" a
> > revival of this?  I still feel as though the examples I'm not quite
> > remembering are closer to "speaking of which", which "which" doesn't work
> > too well as an introductory particle.  Although "By the way" may work
> > pretty well too.
> >
> > LH
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Jun 13, 2014, at 3:08 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > > No fad.
> > >
> > > Bret Harte's once beloved "Plain Language from Truthful James" (1870)
> > > begins - begins, mind you -
> > >
> > > Which I wish to remark,
> > > And my language is plain,
> > > That for ways that are dark
> > > And for tricks that are vain,
> > > The heathen Chinee is peculiar.
> > >
> > > Accident? Not on your bippy. Later:
> > >
> > > Which we had a small game,
> > > And Ah Sin took a hand.
> > >
> > > Harte later called it "possibly the worst poem anyone ever wrote."
> > >
> > > It was, of course, frequently anthologized.
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jun 13, 2014 at 2:34 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >> -----------------------
> > >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > >> Subject:      Re: which its =3D "whose"
> > >>
> > >>
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> > >>
> > >> This reminds me (though is probably unrelated to) another extended use
> > of
> > >> "which" as an unconnected headless relative (or maybe conjunction)
> I'v=
> e
> > >> been noticing that I'm sure someone has described (Ben? Arnold?
> Neal?)=
> .
> > >> It's hard for me to remember instances, or find the ones I've jotted
> > down,
> > >> but they're something like this (googled) example:
> > >>
> > >> so we're looking at my OKCupid profile, which I don't know why this is
> > as
> > >> embarrassing as it is
> > >>
> > >> It might could be paraphrased as "speaking of which".  I tried
> searchi=
> ng
> > >> Language Log but only got a lot of posts on "which" vs. "that", not
> > "which"
> > >> vs. "and", or whatever's going on here.
> > >>
> > >> Maybe it's a fad--must be the season of the "which".
> > >>
> > >> LH
> > >>
> > >> On Jun 13, 2014, at 1:36 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Long ago I mentioned the difficulty even  grad students in English
> ha=
> d
> > 30
> > >>> years ago with "whose" as a subordinating conjunction after something
> > not
> > >>> human, as in "an idea whose time has come." (Some online grammarians
> > now
> > >>> prefer the counter-rational "subordinate conjunction." Right.)
> > >>>
> > >>> One of the grotesque conjunctions the studes used was "which's."
> >  Another
> > >>> was the perhaps genetically identical "which its."
> > >>>
> > >>> Now grownups use it:
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> >
> http://cnn.org/2014/06/11/opinion/ben-ghiat-world-war-one/index.html?iid=
> =3Darticle_sidebar
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> "the Submarine was introduced in the 19th Century by the French
> calle=
> d
> > >> the
> > >>> Plongeur, Which its designs were used by the Confederates to build
> th=
> e
> > >> H.L.
> > >>> Hunley"
> > >>>
> > >>> JL
> > >>>
> > >>> --
> > >>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > >> truth."
> > >>>
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> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> > >
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> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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