A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
Page 27
whose
You can use whose as a possessive to refer to both animate and inanimate nouns. Thus you can say Crick, whose theories still influence work in laboratories around the world or Crick’s theories, whose influence continues to be felt in laboratories around the world. With inanimate nouns you can also use of which as an alternative, as in Crick’s theories, the influence of which continues to be felt in laboratories around the world. But as this example demonstrates, substituting of which for whose is sometimes cumbersome.
It was John Dryden, the 17th-century poet and dramatist, who first promulgated the doctrine that a preposition may not be used at the end a sentence. Grammarians in the 18th century refined the doctrine, and the rule has since become one of the most venerated maxims of schoolroom grammar. But sentences ending with prepositions can be found in the works of most of the great writers since the Renaissance. In fact, English syntax not only allows but sometimes even requires final placement of the preposition, as in We have much to be thankful for or That depends on what you believe in. Efforts to rewrite such sentences to place the preposition elsewhere can have comical results, as Winston Churchill demonstrated when he objected to the doctrine by saying “This is the sort of English up with which I cannot put.”
3
Even sticklers for the traditional rule can have no grounds for criticizing sentences such as I don’t know where she will end up or It’s the most curious book I’ve ever run across; in these examples, up and across are adverbs, not prepositions. You can be sure of this because it is impossible to transform these examples into sentences with prepositional phrases. It is simply not grammatical English to say I don’t know up where she will end and It’s the most curious book across which I have ever run.
4
participles as prepositions
Some participles, such as concerning and considering, are used as prepositions. For more on this, see
participles.
5
pronouns, agreement of
A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and gender. Most people have heard this grammatical rule at some time in their lives. An antecedent, of course, is a noun or pronoun referred to by a pronoun. Usually an antecedent comes before its pronoun (as in Dave played his guitar this morning) but sometimes the pronoun anticipates the antecedent (as in Although he knew he would be late, Mr. Stanton did not rush to get ready).
6
The problems involving agreement of person are less inherent to the pronouns themselves than created by shifts in point of view. Sometimes it is difficult to stick to the same person when using generic pronouns, such as one and you. For more on this problem, see
one.
7
Problems in number agreement are often initiated by indefinite pronouns such as anyone, everybody, and somebody. These problems often involve the related issue of gender. Which pronoun should you use in a sentence such as Everyone thinks (he is/she is/they are) entitled to a raise this year? Using the
