The structure of these relative clauses is quite different.Whofunctions as
the subject ofownedin the first case, andIfunctions as the subject ofknew
in the second.Whomis the object ofknew,even though it appears at the be-
ginning of the clause. Most people do not pay much attention to this differ-
ence, especially when speaking: They have not had sufficient exposure to
formal standard usage for it to have become internalized, so applying the
who/whomdistinction requires conscious application of grammatical
knowledge that many either do not possess or have not fully grasped. Even
those with this knowledge commonly fail to apply it because the flow of the
conversation interferes with application or because they fear that using
whomwill make them sound elitist.
When the relative pronoun is an object, it is possible to drop it from the sen-
tence(The man I knew worked at a bank),which helps a bit. People do this natu-
rally, so they do not have to learn anything new. More problematic, perhaps, are
instances in which the relative pronoun functions as the object of a preposition:
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls....” Some speakers will use the nominative
case in such constructions(for who the bell tolls),but many others simply avoid
using these constructions entirely.
The most common method of avoidance is to use the pronounthat.This
method is so common, in fact, that many people now believe that these words
are interchangeable:
- ?The boythatfound the wallet turned it in at the police station.
- The boywhofound the wallet turned it in at the police station.
These relative pronouns are not interchangeable in formal Standard English.
Formal standard usage provides thatwhois used for people andthatis used for
everything else. This convention used to be followed with some consistency, as
evidenced by the fact that not even nonstandard speakers use these pronouns in-
terchangeably in sentences like the following:
- The lampthatis on the table cost $300.
- *The lampwhois on the table cost $300.
This interesting example raises the question of why English has two relative
pronouns that are so similar. Both words have Old English roots, so the answer
does not lie in English’s famous ability to absorb words from other languages.
Most likely, these pronouns reflect a time when English was more concerned
PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR 145