Re: The Business Memoir - the ``whom'' question

Brian M. Scott wrote:
On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:56:49 +0200, Joachim Pense
<snob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:4nuwkql3l35.1ehtqq10i9e2r.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:


Am Thu, 12 Oct 2006 07:59:33 GMT schrieb Ron Hardin:


Carla Fiorina as reported by the WSJ, in an unflattering review :


In keeping with the CEO-memoir genre, Ms. Fiorina injects business
maxims between anecdotes. "Leaders who are driving change need
credibility," she reminds us. "To conduct effective negotiations, know
whom you're dealing with."


http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009076


My feeling is that she thinks ``whom'' is the object of ``know,''
rather than ``with,'' that being the most natural way it could get
there.


Well, to my German ears "with whom" sounds perfectly natural, like "to
whom" or "with her". '..., mit wem du dich abgibst'.


It is. Ron's being an ass again.

Still, one might expect someone who knows how to use "whom" to also know better than to end a sentence with a so-called "preposition," and make it "know with whom you're dealing."

The sentence strikes me, too, as not fully baked.

Bart Mathias
.

Relevant Pages