Simeon Strunsky

... a certain class of verbal critics who can never free themselves from the impression that man was made for language and not language for man.—Professor Lounsbury.

From a large number of readers we have received requests for a ruling on disputed cases of English usage. We now proceed to answer these inquiries in accordance with the liberal standard for which Professor Lounsbury pleads. One man writes:

Question: Which is right, "To-morrow is Sunday and we are going out," or "To-morrow will be Sunday and we shall go out?" Answer: Both forms are right, but as a matter of fact, if to-morrow is like other Sundays, it will probably rain all day, and your chances of going out are not bright.

Q. Must a sentence always have coherence? What is the practice of our great writers on this point? A. Coherence is not essential. Thus: "Conquests! Thousands! Don Bolaro Fizzgig—Grandee—only daughter—Donna Christina—Splendid creature—loved me to distraction—jealous father—high-souled daughter—handsome Englishman—Donna Christina in despair—prussic acid—stomach pump in my portmanteau—operation performed—old Bolaro in ecstasies—consent to our union—join hands and floods of tears—romantic story—very." (Charles Dickens.)

Q. Must a sentence always have a predicate? A. No. For example: (1) "The Universe smiles to me. The World smiles to me. Everything. Man. Woman. Children. Presidential Candidates. Trolley Cars. Everything smiles to me." (The Complete Whitmanite) (2) "From the frowning tower of Babel on which the insectile impotence of man dared to contend with the awful wrath of the Almighty, through the granite bulk of the beetling Pyramids lifting their audacious crests to the star-meshed skies that bend down to kiss the blue waters of Father Nile and the gracious nymphs laving their blithesome limbs in the pools that stud the sides of Pentelicus, down to our own Washington, throned like an empress on the banks of the beautiful Potomac, waiting for the end which we trust may never come." (From the Congressional Record.)

Q. Is "ivrybody" a permissible variant for "everybody"? A. It is. For instance, "His dinners [our ambassador's at St. Petersburg] were th' most sumchuse ever known in that ancient capital; th' carredge of state that bore him fr'm his stately palace to th' comparatively squalid quarters of th' Czar was such that ivrybody expicted to hear th' sthrains iv a calliope burst fr'm it at anny moment." (Mr. Dooley.)

Q. Is there good authority for saying, "He was given a hat," "He was shown the door," etc.? A. The form is common, and therefore correct. As, "The Senator was paid twenty thousand dollars for voting against the Governor"; "He was offered a third term, but declined"; "The coloured delegates were handed a lemon." (From the contemporary press.)

Q. The use of "who" and "whom" puzzles me. Must "who" always be used in the nominative case and "whom" in the objective? A. Not necessarily. Thus, "I told him who I wanted to see and that it wasn't none of his business" (W. S. Devery); "That's the first guy whom he said put him into the cooler." (Battery Dan Finn.)

Q. I am told that it is wrong to place a preposition at the end of a sentence. Why can't I say, "Mr. Roosevelt is a man whom I should enjoy talking with"? A. Your example is unfortunate. You should say, "Mr. Roosevelt is a man whom I should enjoy talking after."

Q. Is it wrong to split infinitives? Is a phrase like "to seriously complain" really objectionable? A. We hasten to most emphatically say "Yes!"

Q. Is there a rigid rule with regard to the use of the preterite tense? When do you say "hung" and when do you say "hanged"? A. Two examples from a universally recognised authority will illustrate the flexibility of our language in the general use of tenses: (1) "'I know a gen'l'man, sir,' said Mr. Weller, 'as did that, and begun at two yards; but he never tried it on ag'in; for he blowed the bird right clean away at the first fire, and nobody ever seed a feather on him arterwards.'" (2) "So I take the privilidge of the day, Mary, my dear—as the gen'lem'n in difficulties did, ven he valked out of a Sunday—to tell you that the first and only time I see you your likeness was took on my hart in much quicker time and brighter colours than ever a likeness was took by the profeel macheens (wich p'r'aps you may have heerd on Mary my dear) altho it does finish a portrait and put the frame and glass on complete with a hook at the end to hang it up by and all in two minutes and a quarter." (Charles Dickens.)

Q. What is "elegance" in style? I know it does not mean long words and many of them; but just what does it mean? A. Elegance is appropriateness. Long and circumlocutory terms are just as elegant in the mouth of a fashionable preacher as shorter and uglier words in the mouth of some one else. Hamlet's "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" and Chuck Connors's "Wouldn't it bend your Merry Widow?" are equally elegant.

Q. What is force in style? A. We may illustrate with a quotation from Hall Caine's unannounced book: "He drew her to him and kissed her as men and women have kissed through the Æons, since the first star hymned to the first moonrise." Now, as a matter of fact, kissing is only about two thousand years old, and is still unknown to the Chinese, the native Africans, the Hindus, the Australians, the Indians of South America, the Polynesians, and the Eskimos; but the sentence is nevertheless a very forcible one.