0

This is from a news article :

Cooper has called out four GOP legislators — three House members and one senator — whom he said told voters last year that they would protect abortion access.

I think the relative pronoun 'whom' should be changed to 'who' here because it is the subject of the verb 'told'.

Am I wrong?

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    Yes, it should be subjective "who" because it is subject of the bracketed embedded "told" clause: "Cooper has called out four GOP legislators — three House members and one senator — whom he said [ ___ told voters last year that they would protect abortion access]". The gap notation '___' indicates the subject position in the embedded clause.
    – BillJ
    May 15 at 7:18
  • @BillJ Thank you very much.
    – user157844
    May 15 at 7:47

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

"Who" is correct. How can you tell? Simplify the statement by removing the descriptive material: Cooper called out four legislators who told voters.... You wouldn't say "whom" here, so you wouldn't say it in the original, more elaborate sentence, either.

Improve this answer
2
  • Thank you very much.
    – user157844
    May 15 at 1:53
  • 1
    The point is that the pronoun is subject of the embedded "told" clause, and thus should be subjective "who", not accusative "whom"
    – BillJ
    May 15 at 7:20