The who/whom distinction is one of the least understood phenomena in or about English grammar, and I use the disjunctive prepositions intentionally.
To Linda's immediate question. Old English had four cases too, like Modern High German. Actually there was an instrumental also, but it disappeared pretty early and only shows up in Modern English in an expression like "the more, the merrier." The OE accusative, which, as in German, generally ended in -n, disappeared during the Middle English period and was replaced by the dative, which, also as in German, ended in -m, hence the use of "him" and "whom" for direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions.
At the beginning of the Middle English period, about 1100, the Normans had pretty much eliminated Old English as a literary standard and replaced it with French and Latin, and English just didn't get written much for another century and a half. By the time English once again started being written a lot, those writing it were influenced by their knowledge of Latin and Latin grammar. The interesting fact here is that Old amd Middle English, like German, used wh- words only for question words and for indefinite pronouns, like "whoever". Relative clauses were introduced either with "that" and words like it or with nothing. We still have both kinds in Modern English. Latin, on the other hand, used its qu- words, which are cognate to wh- words, both as questions words and as relative pronouns. The wh- words didn't start creeping into relative clauses until about the mid 14th c., when "what" started to be used in RCs. Gradually others made the shift, but the last to make the change successfully was "who". "Whom" never quite made it over into RCs, although it continued to be used as a question word. This is one source of the confusion. Another source of the confusion was the dative/accusative merger I mentioned earlier. Speakers started using "who" more widely quite early in Modern English, and you'll find it in non-subject position in Shakespeare.
What complicated matters for English grammars was the 18th c. and its drive to systematize and standardize English. Grammarians of that period dictated that the logic of grammar required the use of "whom" in non-subject positions, even though, or perhaps because, people weren't using it consistently. This was a clearly prescriptive rule that didn't describe language use at the time but sought to change it. The use of "who" in all positions, except perhaps after a preposition, was so firmly grounded in spoken English, even among the upper classes, that the new rule has never really taken over, although it has been followed fairly consistently in formal writing.
The fact that "whom" is not fully a part of Modern English is illustrated sociolinguistically by some of the events and judgments reported in this discussion. First, there are those for whom "whom" just doesn't exist. Then there are those who recognize that it has appropriate uses but aren't sure what they are, hence the fictitious rules distinguishing its use between direct and indirect objects, a distinction that never existed in English. Then there are those who insist on a stricter formal discourse and use "who" and "whom" consistently as subject and non-subject forms respectively. But the variation in usage is sociolinguistic.
So this leaves us with the question of what to teach, and the answer, as usual, is to teach the registers students will need and teach them when a particular register is appropriate.
In my own usage, "whom" is consistent after prepositions, but that's about the only place where I use it regularly. Hence "to whom it may concern" sounds right, but it also sounds a bit stuffy.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Linda DiDesidero
Sent: Sat 7/15/2006 3:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Who / Whom GERMAN
My mom was German, and she ALWAYS used 'whom' when appropriate. And I think
that that was because of the marked accusative and dative cases in German:
SUBJECT : Who "Wer"
DIRECT OBJECT (ACC): Whom "Wen"
INDIRECT OBJ (DAT): Whom "Wem"
For non-masculine nouns, however, there are no changes in accusative case,
but there are changes in dative case. I'm guessing that may be where that
explanation came from.
Here is the declension (if I remember it correctly! And if not, someone will
correct me!)
Subject: Der Mann; Die Frau; Das Maedchen
ACC (DO): Den Mann; Die Frau; Das Maedchen
DAT (IO): Dem Mann: Der Frau; Dem Maedchen
Linda
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