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

[Jonathan Lighter]

1857 Frederick Law Olmsted  _A Journey through Texas_  (N.Y.: Dix &
Edwards) 34: One evening we were hailed in the darkness to come in and take
some freight aboard.  It proved to be a negro woman _which_ her master
wished to send to Nashville.

The italics presumably mean that this was the actual "illiterate" word used.

JL

On Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 12:27 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> 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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>> > >
>> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > 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."
>


-- 
"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