Is the word whom obsolete?
Who wants to know? I hear you ask. Well, my interest was sparked by a question on University Challenge on BBC TV on 3 April 2006:
"Now almost obsolete in informal usage, what relative pronoun of four letters introduces clauses in which the object of the verb is the antecedent of the relative pronoun."
The answer is quite clearly "whom" (as "wot" has only three letters), and, indeed, Whom! turned out to be the correct answer.
I suppose the crux of the point is the "informal usage" stipulation. You would struggle to think of many informal occasions when you would use "whom" except in phrases such as "some of whom".
When is "whom" appropriate?
In the clause Ann gave the ball to Jon, Ann is the subject and Jon is the object of the transitive verb gave. You could also say She gave the ball to him, but not Her gave the ball to he, as she and he are subjective pronouns and her and him are objective pronouns.
In questions, subjective pronouns become who,objective pronouns whom. We therefore have Who gave Jon the ball? and To whom did Ann give the ball?
Imagine working out which noun is subjective and which is objective in a long sentence while you're talking. By the time you've worked it out in your head it's probably too late. Writing is different, however. I therefore think that in the question, "usage" should be replaced with "speech".
Discuss it at the Proofreading forum.
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