The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1910-02-15
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
CHANGE FAVORED
Danish Linguist Would Put
O. K. on IT Is Me,
and Others.

CHICAGO, Feb. 15.-Henceforth you
may say 1T is me-" not only without
fear Of being branded an Ilite-ate, but
with fun authority for the assertion that
Il IS more logical, sensible and adequate
than the ErammaTian-s insisJence on 1t
IS l." Hereafter YOU may give voice 10
'Tf It was ana know that the II it
were which the g-ammars require IS a
needIess efectation-
These are two items IN the proclama-
ton Of emancipation from the grammar
Ians which Prof Otto Eespersen, the
Danish IingUist, has brought E--a him
from Copenhagen
AS grammar has been taught in the
schools he explained, lit has been
merely a set Of hard and fast rules, a
long list Of dOn'ts which the student
h1ust learn and invariably Observe.
while 7 am IN America am trying TO
Emphasize the new attitude toward
grammar This looks upon IanfUage as
a living, growing, developing means Of
expressing ideas II is constantly chang
ing and growing better as a means Of
communication
Our languages have by TO means
reached their fun development. and they
are bound to 90 on changing and Ina
proving as long as people talk The
old idea that grammar IS something alb
s0Iute and UnaIterabIe is entirely mis-
taken"
Prof. Jesperycn declared that the
changes which Erammariars have found
themselves pCwerIess TO resist have been
In the direction Of greater simplicity and
uniformity
The sentence, It is me-" ne said,
has been established IN your spoken
for ao1 in rrafra Of tho
fact that your grammarians have fought
Il and have been able TO keep il out Of
your written language It is me- is
much more logical than 1t IS T. and
shows the trend toward uniformity con
stsntly going on The tendency here Is
always TO have the objective case after
q verb instead Of having two different
kinds Of verbs, which Is really Uuneces-
say
s'1nSIstence on such construction as II
a were Is also entirely unCalled for, and
the fact that IF II was comes mucn
more naturally 10 most people shows
the movement toward greater simplicity.
There is no shade OF meaning expressed
by the subjunCJIVe that cannot also be
expressed by the Indicative, and the nat
11raI tendency Is 10 drop the subJuncTlVe-
The goal toward which languages are
working IS the furnishing OF a means OF
expressing our IDEAS Win me leaSI I'M
c1sisti- friction, and anything that. calls
our attention 10 the grammar abstracts,
Of course. from the thought, and Is 70
that extent bad That Is the main OBJ
1ection to insisting on such things as II
Is L and II II were when the other
forms are more natural, and we use
them unconScIOuSly when we are not
thinking Of our words Our attentlon IS
turned from the sense Of our speech 70
its form, and we become suited and at
feCted.'
Concerning lido the new universal IAN
EuaEe. OF which Prof TeTpeTSen is the
author and which, he declares, Is more
simple and easy TO learn than Esperanto,
Ehe Copenhagen professor spoke enthu-
siastically-
lido makes use OF more OF the forms
that are already universal, he said
The trouble with Esperanto Is that II
Is based too muCh on the Latin and en-
ploys too much that is obsolete
PrOE- JeIpCTSen is in Chicago 10 de-
liver a series OF lectures at the Univer-
sity OF Chics go.