0
Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Chomsky's use of "whom"

In an interview transcript I found, Noam Chomsky, a respected linguist, says...

"There are sectors of the global population trying to impede the global catastrophe. There are other sectors trying to accelerate it. *Take a look at whom they are.*"

I'm pretty sure this is wrong; it should be "who", but I thought I'd try to confirm it with some knowledgeable people.

The reason I'm uncertain is because when I think about it, if you were pointing out who someone was, you might say "He is her" or "They are them" (if the people in question happened to have multiple genders or identities.)

What do you think?
  

Top answer

Take a look at whom they are. look at is a transitive verb taking the object whom. The whom collocates with the preceding it verb, not with the clause they are.

— Anonymous

  • Take a look at whom they are.
  • look at is a transitive verb taking the object whom.
  • The whom collocates with the preceding it verb, not with the clause they are.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

20 Answers
0
Take a look at whom they are.

look at is a transitive verb taking the object whom. The whom collocates with the preceding it verb, not with the clause they are.
0
0
"Take a look at whom they are" sounds highly unnatural to me.
0
0
AnonymousI'm pretty sure this is wrong
It is. The speaker thought the pronoun was the object of the preposition at, but the object is who they are, in which who is a predicative complement of be. In this function who is always nominative.

By contrast, personal pronouns such as she m
0
0
It sounds unnatural to me as well - in all honestly I don't think he said it. The audio version will be released tomorrow, so I'll get to make sure.
0
0
AnonymousIt sounds unnatural to me as well - in all honestly I don't think he said it. The audio version will be released tomorrow, so I'll get to make sure.
He quite possibly did say it. Lots of people make this mistake.
0
0
(I'm the original poster btw)
fivejedjon He quite possibly did say it. Lots of people make this mistake.
That's surprising, I've never heard anyone make it before. Plus, of all people...

Looking through some more of the transcript and listening to the sections of audio that are available, I noticed another error; in the audio he says, "There was a wide
0
0
whom chomsky(I'm the original poster btw)
Welcome to English Forums, Whom.

The process of spontaneous speech generation ( not reading something written ahead of time) requires a lot of mental computation. Often a form of a word is spoken and the speaker changes his mind in mid-sentence and completes the sentence differently than originally intended.
0
0
Aspara Gusbut the object is who they are
I agree.
0
0
That's from today's BBC Sport website where who they are is used as it should be:

"How many of the Spain players have lived up to who they are and played to their top form?" [Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis.]
0
0
AnonymousThat's from today's BBC Sport website where who they are is used as it should be:
"How many of the Spain players have lived up to who they are and played to their top form?"
How is that who they are any different from the one in Take a look at who they are (where look at is not a verb, as you said; it’s a noun and a prepositio
0

Related Questions