uld find half a dozen respectable authorities, absurdly supposes, that
_who_ may sometimes be rightly preferred to _whom_, as the object of a
preposition. His remark is this: "In the use of _who_ as an interrogative,
there is an _apparent deviation_ from regular construction--it being used
_without distinction of case_; as, '_Who_ do you speak _to?_' '_Who_ is she
married _to?_' '_Who_ is this reserved _for?_' '_Who_ was it made _by?_'
This _idiom_ is not merely colloquial: it is found in the writings of our
best authors."--_Webster's Philosophical Gram._, p. 194; his _Improved
Gram._, p. 136. "In this phrase, '_Who_ do you speak _to?_' there is a
_deviation_ from regular construction; but the practice of thus using
_who_, in certain familiar phrases, seems to be _established_ by the best
authors."--_Webster's Rudiments of E. Gram._, p. 72. Almost any other
solecism may be quite as well justified as this. The present work shows, in
fact, a great mass of authorities for many of the incongruities which it
ventures to rebuke.

[365] Grammarians differ much as to the proper mode of parsing such nouns.
Wells says, "This is _the case independent by ellipsis_."--_School Gram._,
p. 123. But the idea of _such_ a case is a flat absurdity. Ellipsis occurs
only where something, not uttered, is implied; and where a _preposition_ is
thus wanting, the noun is, of course, its _object_; and therefore _not
independent_. Webster, with too much contempt for the opinion of "Lowth,
followed by the _whole tribe of writers_ on this subject," declares it "a
palpable error," to suppose "prepositions to be understood before these
expressions;" and, by two new rules, his 22d and 28th, teaches, that,
"Names of measure or dimension, followed by an adjective," and "Names of
certain portions of time and space, and especially words denoting
continuance of time or progression, are used _without a governing
word_."--_Philos. Gram._, pp. 165 and 172; _Imp. Gram._, 116 and 122;
_Rudiments_, 65 and 67. But this is no account at all of the
_construction_, or of the _case_ of the noun. As the nominative, or the
case which we may use independently, is never a subject of government, the
phrase, "_without a governing word_," implies that the case is _objective_;
and how can this case be known, except by the discovery of some "governing
word," of which it is the _object?_ We find, however, many such rules as
the following: "Nouns of time, distance, and degree, are