[Ads-l] "which" = 'who'

[Jonathan Lighter]

https://naval-encyclopedia.com/naval-aviation/ww2/us/vought-sb2u-vindicator.php
<https://naval-encyclopedia.com/naval-aviation/ww2/us/vought-sb2u-vindicator.php>

"Mechanics, which after each mission had to patch these with bands of tape,
ended calling them 'Wind Indicators'."

JL

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 9:14 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "which" = 'who'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> His voice was very even and confident. It did not sound like a slip. The
> student exx. I used to see occasionally didn't seem like slips either. Nor
> did they refer to de-animated individuals.
>
> I doubt too whether many people would think, "I saw a corpse  - I mean a
> lady! - which had slumped over on the table."
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 9:01 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" = 'who'
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Sep 7, 2011, at 8:53 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock wrote:
> >
> > > If she was dead, maybe it was a slip? Dead people aren't exactly
> > > persons in the same way.
> >
> > I think it was Jim McCawley who pointed out the difference between:
> >
> > the corpse which/*who was sprawled on the table
> > the dead person (dead lady, dead man,...) who/*which was sprawled on the
> > table
> >
> > But maybe not everyone shares these judgments.
> >
> > (Of course, "dead body" works like "corpse":  the dead body which/*who
> was
> > sprawled on the table.)
> >
> > LH
> >
> > >
> > > On Sep 7, 2011, at 12:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >
> > >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >> -----------------------
> > >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > >> Subject:      "which" = 'who'
> > >>
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >>
> > >> Eyewitness to Carson City IHOP shootings, on CNN: "I saw a lady
> > >> which had
> > >> slumped over on the table."
> > >>
> > >> Guy (on phone) otherwise well-spoken, sounds white, not young. But
> > >> not old
> > >> enough to be a speaker of Middle English, either.
> > >>
> > >> I used to see this occasionally in freshman themes more than twenty
> > >> years
> > >> ago. It would not occur to me in ten million years to use "which" in
> > >> this
> > >> way.
> > >>
> > >> JL
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > >> truth."
> > >>
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> > >
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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."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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