Brett, I don't object to anything. I'm just reporting that I would find it unnatural in my dialect (or ideolect, although it would surprise me if I was alone in this) to say, "Whose is this WALLET?" However, I would have no trouble in saying, "Whose is THIS wallet?", as per Susan van Druten's example. Dick Veit On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 10:23 AM, Brett Reynolds <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > On 25-Jun-09, at 8:46 AM, Dick Veit wrote: > > In my dialect, I can't say "Whose is this wallet?" (or "To whom belongs >> this wallet?") although I probably could say, "This wallet is whose?" and >> even "This wallet belongs to whom?" >> > > This strikes me as Dick's personal idiolect. As far as I know, there is no > generally described North America or British dialect that prohibits > constructions such as "whose is this wallet," though Dick doesn't explain > what he objects to so it's not exactly clear what we should be comparing. > > Examples of similar constructions include: > Tom Sawyer: Look here, Joe Harper, whose is that tick? > The Secret Garden: There he is in the bush. Whose is he? > The Bible: Whose is this image, and superscription? > > From the OED: > Date Author Match > 1748 A. Richardson VII. lv. 194 ' Whose is this?' 'Mine, sir', > chuffily > 1916 H. James Whose is it? > 1921 P. LUBBOCK attered facts, whose is this new point of view? It > i > 1936 M. ALLINGHAM ings Bank? .. Whose is it?' > 1883 D. C. MURRAY e voice. .. ' ' Whose is it?' > 1923 editor perh. repr. ' whose is this?'] > 1320 ? whose is witer and wys of wit. > > More recent examples from the Corpus of Current American English can be > found here: > <http://www.americancorpus.org/x1.asp?q=1106195> > <http://www.americancorpus.org/x1.asp?q=1106193> > <http://www.americancorpus.org/x1.asp?q=1106188> > > The last two options that Dick suggests are echo questions. In standard > English, echo questions are usually used only in response statements (e.g., > a: "This wallet is his." b: "This wallet is whose?"). > > > Best, > Brett > > ----------------------- > Brett Reynolds > English Language Centre > Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning > Toronto, Ontario, Canada > [log in to unmask] > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface > at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/