Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/140
the nature of the case obviates ambiguity. To take an instance that will show both sides, the following is correct:
I shut the door and stood with my back to it. Then, instead of his philandering with Bess, I, Clementina MacTaggart, had some plain speech with John Barnaby.—Crockett.
Subject of the sentence, I; subject of the gerund, he; they are different; therefore the he must be expressed, in the shape of his. Now rewrite the main sentence as—John Barnaby heard some plain speech from me, Clementina MacTaggart. The sense is the same; but the his before philandering at once becomes superfluous; it is not yet seriously in the way, because we do not know what is the subject of philandering, the name only coming later. Now rewrite it again as—Then John Barnaby heard some plain speech from...instead of...The his is now so clumsy as to be almost impossible.
The insertion of superfluous subjects is much less common than the omission of necessary ones; but three examples follow. The first is a rare and precious variety; the second has no apparent justification; for the third it may be said that the unusual his has the same effect as the insertion of the parenthetic words as he actually does after limiting would have had.
You took food to him, but instead of he reaching out his hand and taking it, he kept asking for food.—Daily Telegraph.
Harsh facts: sure as she was of her never losing her filial hold of the beloved.—Meredith.
I have said that Mr. Chamberlain has no warrant for his limiting the phrase...to the competitive manufacture of goods.—Lord Goschen.
In giving the rule summarily, we used the phrase subject of the sentence. That phrase is not to be confined to the subject of the main sentence, but to be referred instead, when necessary, to the subject of the subordinate clause in which the gerund may stand. For instance:
The good, the illuminated, sit apart from the rest, censuring their dullness and vices, as if they thought that, by sitting very grand in their