John H. McWhorter
Appearances
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
I was interested in pronouns because English actually has, depending on how you count it, a compact collection of seven words that we use to replace nouns when we're speaking spontaneously and quickly. We don't say the noun over and over again. And Words have interesting histories and pronouns are included in that. And pronouns change a lot from one stage of the language to another.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
And I think a lot of people would be surprised at how English's pronouns worked in old English as opposed to the way they do now.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Well, the funny thing is that, for example, we think that having just our word you to refer to both a single person and a bunch of people is normal. Nothing feels more normal than that to an Anglophone. But the truth is that normal languages have one word for one you and then another word for two or more yous. Or they can even cut the salami thinner than that.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
And certainly in earlier English, thou meant just one person. You was not used for one person. It was used for two or more people. And then both thou and you had different forms depending on whether they were subject or object. And in Old English, there was even one you used when it was only two but not more people. There was a word yeet. And so you would have said thou, yeet, and you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
That's one, two, and then three or more second persons, so to speak. Now all we have is you. English in the modern sense is a very telegraphic language compared to most languages when it comes to pronouns, but even earlier Englishes.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Whereas Chaucer would have found that bizarre. Exactly. Do other languages find that bizarre? Yeah.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
I mean, really, if you think about it, if you try to learn pretty much any other language, Hindi is one exception, but if you try your hand at French or Russian or Polish or Chinese or just about anything else, one of the first things you have to learn is that there is a word for you with one person, and then there's a word for you with several people, like tu in Spanish, and then you have, well, let's use French.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
So, for example, tu in French is one you, and then vous is plural you. Now, there are all sorts of issues with how you toggle between the two of those, including politeness. And so, for example, in French, you can use vous, the plural one, with one person to indicate politeness and everything. But the thing is, there is a tú, and that's the way languages are supposed to work.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
In Spanish, tú, and then, depending on what Spanish you're speaking, either vosotros or you've got ustedes or something for more than one you. That's normal. It's English that's the odd man out in this sense.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Yeah, there's an issue with what we call subject and object in English. And it's based on the way Latin works, because the people who first formally described how English works were people who were in the thrall to Latin as one of the most wonderful and complex and elegant languages that had ever existed. And we can understand their perspective.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Travel was harder, and Westerners, whatever you want to call that, were not as cosmopolitan as many of them are now. There was a kind of a Latin fetish. And so we're led to think that I is the subject and me is the object. And therefore, if you say Billy and me went to the store, you're making a mistake because me is an object form and you would never say me went to the store.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
And again, it's understandable that people think that you're taught that by people who take themselves quite seriously. But the truth is, it's always been a myth that English has subject and object pronouns in that way.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
that latin does and the idea that it does is something that people created in the 1700s based on an idea that that's the way english must work but then the question becomes why is it that you always have to be taught that what is it about english that you know all little kids speaking english naturally say him and me went to the park and then you tell them no it's he and i went to the park because you wouldn't say him went to the park when this is the issue
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
One, French works exactly that way. You couldn't say Guillaume et je went to the park. You have to say Guillaume et moi. And nobody in French has any problem with it. Why is it such an issue in English? And then also in a language like Spanish. which really does observe the rule that we're told, nobody messes it up. There's no error, no kid would ever say Guillermo y me went to the park.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Guillermo y yo, they know to do it. Why is it that in English kids have such trouble and that people without a certain amount of education supposedly have so much trouble? The truth is that English works differently than Spanish and Latin, and it very much works. There's a whole different rule, it's French's rule, that we're not taught. So there's a grand confusion about that.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
And I openly understand that because we associate Billy and me went to the store with being kind of slovenly, we'll always have to correct ourselves to Billy and I went to the store in formal situations. But we should understand that that is as arbitrary as the fact that 125 years ago, men were running around in top hats. There was nothing necessary about it. That's just the way that it was.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
But Billy and me went to the store. Him and me went to the store. perfectly ordinary English that Shakespeare wouldn't have had any problem with at all.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Pretty much because they were taught it by other English teachers. And I think deep down, most of us feel it more natural to say me and Billy went to the store rather than Billy and I. We condition ourselves. And just like you learn to kind of put your legs together if you feel food about to fall down on the floor. But it's a conditioned reflex.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
It's not how English really goes, which is why if you watch a bunch of kids breaking a lamp and then somebody asks you, who broke that lamp? You don't say, oh, they did. even though they would be the subject. They broke it. Who broke that lamp? You say them, even though you would never say them broke it.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
So the reason that we end up not learning this quote unquote rule is because you can't speak English without breaking it all the time. You have to say it was them. You have to say them if asked who broke the lamp. If you knock on the door, you can say it is I, but you don't. You say it's me, even though that me isn't an object.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
And so that's what kids grow up internalizing, and then they're told that they're breaking the rule to say, me and Billy went to the store. Really, me and Billy went to the store is because you say, who broke the lamp? Me. So we could have a more consistent rule, but, you know, life is never perfect.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
I am aware of no language where that's the way it works. And what's really at issue with that sentence is I and Billy went to the store. Notice that it sounds like a Martian is speaking, but it shouldn't because after all, I as a subject. But in terms of the the order of pronouns, it being based on that issue of respect and No.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Now, there are languages that do subject pronominal forms, if I may, to certain orders just because that's the way it goes. But it wouldn't be that the woman goes before the man or that you don't talk about yourself first out of some kind of courtesy. And of course, I do not control anything like every language in the world. But a linguist such as me messes around with a whole lot of them.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
And I feel pretty comfortable in saying that grammar does not work according to formality when it comes to the order of
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Well, pretty much after you've used the name or you've named the thing, then you use the pronoun unless you need to clarify because the subject has changed and you need to go back to cases. But for the most part, pronouns are what you use to specify after you have made it clear what you're talking about, which means that we use them an awful lot. They're very deeply seated.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
You could almost say they're not words. They're more Thank you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Thank you. Thank you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Thank you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
Thank you.
Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
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Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
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Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
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Something You Should Know
Seen, Heard, Valued: The Magic of Validation & Pronouns Are Weird! Here’s Why
What is it about English that, you know, all little kids speaking English naturally say, him and me went to the park, and then you tell them, no, it's he and I went to the park because you wouldn't say him went to the park. But then the question becomes, why is it that you always have to be taught that?