The Grice Club

Welcome

The Grice Club

The club for all those whose members have no (other) club.

Is Grice the greatest philosopher that ever lived?

Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Wheher or not

"...will you go and see it and tell me whether they murder it or not" - GB Shaw, letter, 28 Nov 1895

"...never knew whether or not to insert the names of his parents" - John Updike, Couples, 1968

The option of mitting "or not" only exists when the clause introduced by "whether" serves as the subject of the sentence or as the object of a preposition or verb. When the clause has an adverbial function, "or not" must be retained:

"Whether or not one agrees with Vidal's judgments, there are some trenchant formulations" Simon 1980

No comments:

Post a Comment