A Dictionary of Cont..

personal pronoun, as in who am I?, who is he?,
who are you?. The interrogative which ma:y be
used in the same way. That is, we might say
which are you? or which am I?, meaning to
which group do you belong or do I belong?
But which may also be felt as the subject of
the verb and treated as a third person singular.
That is, in looking at a picture of a group of
people, we might say which is you?
Theoretically, the relative pronouns who,
which, and that require the form of the verb
that would be used with the antecedent. That
is, one should say it is silly to ask me who
know nothing about it and it is silly to ask
you who know nothing about it because one
would say Z know, you know. In practice, a
great many people treat the relatives who,
which, and that as third person pronouns
which may be singular or plural but which
do not carry over any difference in person.
That is, many people would say it is silly to
ask me who knows nothing about it. This is
not literary English. But very few people hear
it as a grammatical mistake and some feel
uncomfortable when the technically correct
literary form is used.
An explanatory noun following Z or you does
not affect the person of the verb. That is, we
say I, your teacher, am aware and ~014, my
teacher, are aware, and not is aware.
When a verb has both an afhrmative and a
negative subject, it follows the person of the
affirmative, as in Z, not you, am to blame and
you, not I, are to blame. Theoretically, with any
other kind of compound subject the person of
the verb is determined by the word standing
nearest it, as in death and I am found eternal
and neither he nor Z am timid. In practice, most
people treat these compound subjects as plural
wherever possible. They may be treated as plural
when the compound is made with and, as in
death and Z are found eternal, or is negative,
as in neither he nor Z are timid.
A compound subject involving either - - or
is much harder to handle. According to the
rules, the last pronoun is the decisive one and
we should say either he or I am responsible
and either you or I am responsible. This
“correct” form is seldom heard. Some people
would use is and some people would use are
in each of these constructions. But most people
would avoid the question by saying either he
is responsible or I am. One grammarian, cornmenting
on this, says, “most people dodge the
necessity of making a choice between the two
persons as though it were an educational test
which they dreaded to meet.” But it might be
that we dodge it because there is no satisfactory
answer. Problems of persons are so
rare in English that any construction which
calls attention to them seems unnatural.
agree to disagree. The value of antithesis is that
it rho& us into attention. Pope’s description
of a huge, pretentious, but basically commonplace
country mansion as a heap of liftleneq
or his statement that Man ia the glory, jest, and
23 airplane
riddle of tlze world fix themselves in our minds
by the striking contrast of the opposing ideas
that he brings together. But when repetition
has removed the element of surprise, indispensable
to the shock, antithesis is likely to be
annoying, because it suggests that the speaker
thinks he can be clever without making any
effort of his own. One can q/tote a brilliant
antithesis, since the acknowledgment removes
any suggestion that one is claiming the wit as
one’s own, but one must always bear in mind
that a little quoting goes a long way.
Agree to disagree is a cliche, clever when
first thought of but long since worn out, along
with the patience of those who must hear it.
aid. See help.
ailment. See sickness.
aim. When aim is used in a physical sense, the
place is introduced by at, as in aim the gun at
the barn door. In the United States, when aim
is used in the sense of intend it is followed
by an infinitive, as in I aim to be friendly.
When used in this sense in Great Britain, it is
followed by a? and the -ing form of the verb,
as in Z aim at being friendly.
ain’t. This word may mean am not, is nof, are
not, have not, or has not. It is heard in I ain’t
ready, that ain’t true, they ain’t here, Z ain’t
got it, he ain’t got it, and so on. It is not considered
standard in any of these cases, with the
possible exception of am not used in a question,
that is, ain’t I?
In the United States most people consider
ain’t I? in a class with he ain’t and the other
unacceptable forms. But a few bold spirits
insist on using it because the language needs
an expression of this sort. Am I not? is much
too stiff for ordinary conversation and amn’f
I? is practically impossible to say. In England
aren’t I? is considered acceptable spoken
English. But in England the r in aren’t is not
pronounced. What is actually said is more like
aunt I? The difference between the English
aren’t I? and the American ain’t I? is simply
the difference that we have in the two pronunciations
of tomato. However, some Americans
who would not say ain’t I? feel that aren’t
I?, pronounced with its full American r, is
very respectable. Others consider it affected
or “kittenish.”
air line. The phrase air line, which today in
American usage means a company furnishing
air transport (usually in scheduled flights),
meant up until fifty years ago what we now
call a bee line, i.e., a straight line, as through
the air (Take any common map . . . and
rule an air line across it from Baltimore to
St. Louis). Several railroads incorporated the
term into their names to remind the public of
the economical directness of their routes. Of
these the best known now is the Seaboard
Air Line.
ah-plane is now the universal American spelling
and pronunciation. The English still use aeroplane,
though airplane is becoming increasingly
common among them.