Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-31
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

whom" and verb correct that he has
no time left for anything else.
X
There can be no desire in such re-
Elections as these to uphold poor gram
mar, or vulgarity, or clodhopper Eng
| lish. The sole idea is to point out what
is not so commonly understood, that
learned men who have made the largest
Investigations of the componentS OF
English speech have the largest toler-
ance for variations. They do not
throw fit" over the split inf1nitive, as
many school teachers do, but show you
where the split infinitive was favorite
construction with some of the greatest
writer's.
They will show you, if you are inter-
ested. that Its me" is not incorrect
and that this here" was once in good
use. OF the latter Prof. Smith points
out that with an interpoSed noun (aS
in this man hereO it is still current
colloquially. though rare in literature;
it appears in Comus: And first behold
this cordial julep here" We hope no
reckless reader will rush away to talk
about this here man." or this here
automobile" but if he does he may at
| least put up some defense for his
! conduct.
It's me" was mentioned in this COL
umn last week, with the comment that
popular usage in millions of homes is
sanctifying it, It's 1" has always
seemed pedantic to us. We are there
fore happy to be able to give the fol-
lowing Through Prof. Smith from
Prof Sonnenscheins New English
Grammar:
Its me- is not incorrect. although it
is uncertain what the explanation of the
usage is. Perhaps the form me may
be due to the same reason as leads the
French to use moi in sentences like
! 'C'est moi Both the French moi and
the English me- were originally &C
cusitives, but moi has come to be used
as a special form of the pronoun in va
rious constructions, sometimes for the
nominative, sometimes for the accusa-
tive, and sometimes for the dative. And
the same may be true of the English
me-"
We do not know how the reader feels
about it, but it makes us mighty hap
py to read such defense of our old
friend ITS mel" When some one calls
who is that?" our old-time preference
is for Its mel" To use cts 1" always
makes lis feel almost as absurd as we
DO when we crawl into rumble seat or
out again.
Dlu you KNOW IlldG Iuil- CleNtl
and "stingy" were considered as low"
words in DR.. Johnson's day?
Prof Smith points this out: at the
same time he shows how the accepted
language, the English familiar to the
educated classes. is never absolutely
uniform. but is in reality four different
kinds of languages at any one given
time.
There is the language of colloquial
talk, the vernacular of good converse
ton, the language of written prose and
the language of written poetry.
Slang words come from the lowest
rung, that of colloquial speech. Sports
men pick them UP from grooms and
gamekeepers. children learn them from
servants. masters from their workmen;
they drift from stables and gardens into
drawing rooms and wherever the edu-
Gated and the uneducated meet and talk
together on easy terms new words,
fresh from the popular speech. are add
ed to the vocabulary of the educated
classes"
Such words at first are regarded as
vulgariSmS, Prof. Smith points out, and
shock the ears of the polite, but soon
undergo a sitting process. Some of them
push their way through talk to familiar
letters. then into easy prose. and few
at last into poetry The gist of it all,
it seems to us, is that there is no telling
what an honest word may be some day,
so let us withhold our frowns and ac-
cept it if it is forceful, picturesque and
colorful and reasonably free from utter
vulgarity.