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Diamondrg Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

who or whoever

0I 00know "who" cannot be used in00 the sentence below in place of "whoever". Am I right?02br
02br
01b001- Whoever wins will be expected to take the rest of us for a meal. (not who)02b02br
02br
00but what about the sentence below? Is it correct? If not, how can it be corrected? 02br
02br
01b002- I don't know who knows the truth.02b0-
  

Top answer

02br 02br 00 CJ0-

— CalifJim

  • 02br 02br 00 CJ0-
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15 Answers
0
0 You are right about the first sentence.02br
00 The second sentence is correct as it stands.02br
02br
00 CJ0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite10You are right about the first sentence.12br
10The second sentence is correct as it stands.12br
12br
10CJ12br
12br
12blockquote
10but does "who" mean "the person who"? What is the difference between 1 and 2? If 2 is correct, why can't "who" be used
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1b001 Whoever wins will be expected to take the rest of us for a meal.02br
02b02br
02br
01b002 I don't know who knows the truth.02br
02b02br
02br
01i00whoever02i00 (fused relative pronoun equivalent to 01i00he who02i00) has the semantic component 01i00no matt
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0 Another way of looking at it is that in 02br
01i00Whoever wins will be expected to ...02i02br
00 we are not committed to the existence of a particular winner at the moment of the utterance. The identity of the winner is assumed to be something that is to be determined in the future. In the present many possible persons are potentially the winner.0
0
0
0 01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite10Another way of looking at it is that in 12br
11i10Whoever wins will be expected to ...12i12br
10we are not committed to the existence of a particular winner at the moment of the utterance. The identity of the winner is assumed to be something that is to be determined in the
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0 I'm not particulary good at giving the technical names of these structures. Sorry. I only know 01i00whoever02i00 as a fused relative serving the double function of subject in the main clause and subject in the secondary clause. And I only know the second structure as an indirect question formulation.02br
02br
00 (I suspect that 01i00
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0I've found this:02br
02br
00- I'll take whoever wants to go. (Longman)02br
02br
00is it different from02br
02br
00- I don't know who knows the truth02br
02br
00?0-
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0You wrote,02br
02br
01i00The identity of the knower of the truth is not known, but there is such a person. We just don't now which person 00it00 is.02i02br
02br
00Here, the word 01i00it02i00 refers to the 01b00identity02b00 of the person, so you used 01i00it 02i00i
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0 01blockquote
00- I'll take whoever wants to go. (Longman) 12br
10is it different from12br
12br
10- I don't know who knows the truth12br
12br
10 Yes. It's different. And complicated. Both the differences in semantic properties of the verbs 11i10take12i10 and 11i10know12i10 a
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0Just out of curiosity, such a sentence wouldn't be correct, then?02br
02br
00"Whoever committed the crime won't be punished"/"I won't punish whoever committed the crime".0-
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