The New York herald., 1922-09-20
Lessons in Grammar.
Examples Of Words Misused and Ad,
verbs Misplaced.

To THE New YORK HERALD: In his
analysis of the sentence, HE is one Of
those opinionated persons who is deter
mined to have his own way" Rossiter
Johnson says that, the subject of the
verb after tho relative pronoun being
plural, the verb should be "are" instead
OF 'is.' Has he not overlooked tho
partitive sense implied in the sentence? :?
Does not the number OF the verb depend
upon the thought in the mind OF the
speaker?
For example. Smith and Brown are
discussing some of their acquaintance.
Smith says: "Mr. A Is one Of those re-
dictionary persons who is Objectionable
to me because he dislikes modern mu-
sia" Thereupon Brown says: We'll.
how about Mr.. b? He Is one OF those
reactionary persons who is Objectionable
to me because he dislikes modern sports
and sticks TO his books all the time"
In those sentences manifestly "who"
has singular meaning and refers to the
objectionable person specially men,
toned. for to make II plural would be tc
say that all reactionary persons are OBJ
jectionable to Smith and Brown. which
neither OF them affirms In the sentence.
specifically mentioning the reason for
the objectionableness of each individual.
am surprised that Mr.. Johnson did
not call attention to the growing use OF
like" for "as if' or "as." Everywhere
we read these days sentences like this :
HE ran after tho ball like he had
winged feet" ] have before me a head
line in a Manhattan paper reading
thus: CLOTHES like Dante wore are un-
earthed."
Another strange development OF up to
date newspaper writing Is seen in the
unwillingness to place an adverb be-
tween the parts OF a verb in the COM
pound form when corrugated with
"have." For example. we find repeat
edly such expressions as these: "He
hardly had escaped when he was recap
tured." Just what objection there is to
placing hardly between had" and
ESCAPED" is not apparent unless one has
the critical eye for grammar possessed
by the writer of a much more labored
phrase who explained. did you sec how
clsverly l escaped splitting the infini-
tive?" 1t has never been made clear by
throw an adverb between the subject
and the predicate but in no circumstance
must put an adverb between the parts
of verb.
Archie Rice tries 20 make out case
for using "as follows" and "as follow
according TO the singular or the plural
form OF the subject. but L. r. Townsend
in his "Art OF Speech" points out the
difference of opinion among leading
grammarians as 10 whether las follows
should not always be written in the
singular form as an impersonal verb
unaffected by the subject preceding. Mr..
Rice shows the tendency above referred
to regarding the place Of the adverb by
saying 'Tt generally can be omitted"
Perhaps he labors under the impression
that placing generally" after "can''
would be splitting the infinitive. Town
send (page 115) would tell him that ad-
verbs are placed after the first auxil-
iary In the compound form OF verbs"
and tho first page OF Herbert Spencer
90 style would show him how that
great writer scrupled not to place long
qualifying phrases after the first aux
iiiary. w. u. HICKS.
New ToIg. September 10.