CHAPTER X.
ON THE INTERROGATIVE PRONOUN.
[§ 459]. Questions are of two sorts, direct and oblique.
Direct.—Who is he?
Oblique.—Who do you say that he is?
All difficulties about the cases of the interrogative pronoun may be determined by framing an answer, and observing the case of the word with which the interrogative coincides. Whatever be the case of this word will also be the case of the interrogative.
DIRECT.
Qu. Who is this?—Ans. I.
Qu. Whose is this?—Ans. His.
Qu. Whom do you seek?—Ans. Him.
OBLIQUE.
Qu. Who do you say that it is?—Ans. He.
Qu. Whose do you say that it is?—Ans. His.
Qu. Whom do you say that they seek?—Ans. Him.
Note.—The answer should always be made by means of a pronoun, as by so doing we distinguish the accusative case from the nominative.
Note.—And, if necessary, it should be made in full. Thus the full answer to whom do you say that they seek? is, I say that they seek him.
[§ 460]. Nevertheless, such expressions as whom do
they say that it is? are common, especially in oblique questions.
"And he axed him and seide, whom seien the people that I am?—Thei answereden and seiden, Jon Baptist—and he seide to hem, But whom seien ye that I am?"—Wiclif, Luke ix.
"Tell me in sadness whom she is you love."—Romeo and Juliet, i, 1.
"And as John fulfilled his course, he said, whom think ye that I am?"—Acts xiii. 25.
This confusion, however, is exceptionable.