Apropos my comments on ‘sad demise’ (EFU, Feb. 7, 2008  ) L. Sundaram writes: ‘If sad demise is objectionable, what about the good company it keeps with Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, etc? Can we not accept the use of adjectives in these cases as ones used for emphasis, legitimised by usage?’

No doubt the phrases Sundaram has cited routinely appear in the form given. But when you wish somebody ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Birthday’ you are wishing that the Christmas be merry, the birthday be a happy one, etc.  They could turn out to be otherwise. You never know.

But this is not the case with sad demise. In the overwhelming majority of cases the death of a person is a sad one.  So there is some justification for labelling the phrase tautological.

2. Venkatesh, M C points out that Americans are not familiar with the word whom. ‘When I ask them ‘Whom did you ask?’ they don’t seem to understand it. I have to rephrase it as “Who did you ask”? Is this grammatical?

The underlying structure is Question  you asked who. The verb ask assigns the objective case to who and so who becomes whom. And then because it is a question, whom is fronted (=moved to initial position). We then get whom did you ask? But since the use of whom is declining, it is better to say Who did you ask?

Another point. The correct case form is required when who is adjacent to the case assigner, here the verb. But in front position the wh word is no longer adjacent to the verb, so Who did you ask will pass. An exception, to be explained is the echo question You asked who? (There will be a fuller discussion of who-whom in relative clauses in an issue of EFU in April.)

3. ‘In which situations do you use at once? Is it when A and B are contradictory (one is desirable/ positive and the other is the opposite) or when A and B are complementary (both are positive attributes or both are negative)?—Venkatesh, MC.

Generally at once has the meanings ‘at the same time’ (Don’t talk all at once) or  ‘suddenly’ (Before he could know what was happening, they pounced on him at once.) In the sense Venkatesh is seeking clarification on,  the phrase usually found is at the same time.  She could be frank and reserved at the same time.  The film is a farcical tragedy and a comical nonsense at the same time. As you can see these phrases are all neither positive nor negative but a combination of opposing qualities.

Used with both, the structure suggested by Venkatesh is possible.  The film was at once both a tragedy and a comedy (somewhat tautological!)

4. ‘Those who are English lovers and ardent followers of the language ….’   Quoting this from an article in DH Education supplement (June 3, 2008), Prof. Sajjan comments: ‘ardent followers of the language’ is an unusual expression… but what about ‘English lovers’?

A lover of music is a music lover; but it doesn’t follow that every structure of the type lover of — has an equivalent phrase N+lover where N is the head of the following prepositional phrase. A lover of cats is certainly not a cat lover.

More generally, a structure of the type NP+PP des not necessarily have an equivalent structure where the noun governed by the preposition becomes an attributive modifier.  The width of the road is not the road width.
Similarly a lover of English is not an English lover. There is also the possibility of an ambiguity. An English lover may be mistaken for an Englishman.

It may be possible (in a learned dissertation) to examine every kind of NP+Prep.phrase and then offer some rules as to when an equivalent N+N structure is possible. But it can’t be done here.

What is generally correct is NP+PP. The alternative structure is not always possible. But even this rule has its own exceptions: my wife (not: wife of mine, except in some very special contexts), John’s coat (Not: the coat of John), etc. Grammar can take you a long way but not all the way. Good usage must be acquired by studying such publications as The Economist, The Guardian, The Times (London) among British publications; The Hindu, The Times of India and The Statesman among Indian publications.  Read only the editorials.  This column also is helpful.

Contact the writer at ksyadurajan@yahoo.com