Evening journal., 1909-02-22
eufony.

eufony.
There is, however. one problem which
Professor Iounsbury has not DISGUST II
the word Everybody" has a plural sense
standing perhaps for ''all present" this
plural sense is not sufficiently pronounced
to permit the plural form of the verb with
It. 1t woud be difficult to use the express
sion Everybody meet their friends on
this OCCASION" while it seems natural
enough TO say Everybody meets their
friends on this occasion"
No matter how one twists the expression
there seems to be something wrong with
it, and Professor Lounsbury very properly
calls it a problem and your paper very
properly heds the articl "A Pronoun We
Lack"
Under the circumstances 1t woud seem
advizabl to fall back on the form which
Is now endorst in the grammars until
some biological genius invents some word
which viii I'll the bill, and to the use of
which "evrybody vii Civ his or her, or
their consent"
Then again, at a stag party where every
body is (areD masculin, there woud be no
troubl about using tae "his." while at a
lady's sewing party the his" may be
very properly left out and "her" used in
its sted. At the stag party everybody
brought his umbrella, while at the lady's
party everybody brought her umbrella.
Accordingly, we hav at present num-
ber of ways in which we treat this badly
treated word. and 1 viii Civ the different
sampls seriatim:
When tho curtin rises and the great
actor appears.
Everybody rises to his feet and applauds.
Everybody rises 10 his or her feet and
apalauds.
Everybody rises to their feet and ap-
plauds
Everybody rise to their feet and applaud
And so on ad inhnitum. 1 hav always
mainland that this difficulty of making
grammatical agreements comes from the
loss Of the innexions in the English Ian
guage In loren languages this difficulty
does not arise. 1t would, for instance. be
impossibl for a German to say In his Ian.
| guage: Between you and l." yet this Is
a common error I'm English. Foreners haV
other ways Of maltreating their languages
but they stop short at mutilating theil
grammars. This is a distinctly Englisl
falling, and the littl troubl with the wore
everybody" is just one case in point.
All these common errors coud be eradi
Gated thru one agency the public scool
but the public scool has long ago ceast e
turn out solid scolars Only a few year,
ago an examination was had of the frs
year high scool pupils OF Washington a
the instance Of the United States Senate
OF the 1iSS pupils examind In seventh
grade work not a solitary one answer,
all the questions askt, and these werl
high scool pupils and were examind oi
their requirements OF two years back.
In arithmetic. which was supposed TO b,
the principal study Of the public 5000
system OF the national capital. only
\ pupils out of the 1lSS solvd the ridiculous
ly simpl problems d5 in number), and q
history (of their own country not on
answered all the questions askt. As L
grammar and composition, they wer'
simply unmentionabl. (See Senate Report
Fifty-sxth Congress, First session. Pub
lie scools OF the District of Columbia, lse
ports. Numbers 52s and ,s5)
In view Of the great unsolvd educationa
problems before US. problems WHICH seen
to become aggravated insted OF ahoviated
how trivial seems to be the lit.l detail
concerning the plural or singular sense o
a word like everybody" 1t woud seem
indeed. that it were better policy to lack
the greater evil first, with the assurance
that the littl evils vii rectify themselvs
with apologies for infringing upon you
vaiuabl space to this extent, I remain.
Very truly yours.
Il. L. Scharf. Phi. D.
p. s.-The spelling used here is recon-
mended by the biological societies Of Eng
land and America. and can be found Fl
the Standard dictionary and in the Ap
pendix of webster's Imperial Dictionary
Washington, d. c., Feb. 1e