Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 AK>  I still cannot see the logic why she used _them_ instead
 AK>  of _those_. It is not a kind of error a Russian could make.

 AH>  No... it's the sort of error a lower-class native speaker
 AH>  who'd had little or no formal education would have made at
 AH>  the time of writing.

                               [...]

 AK>  Well, _them_ is well known pronoun, who can we mix it up
 AK>  with _those_?.


            According to FOWLER'S this usage seems to have been quite common in
 the 16th-19th centuries, but was "downgraded" in the 20th century & is
regarded as "dialectal or illiterate" at present.  It may not technically be an
 error... OTOH, Higgins was attempting to teach standard English as it was used
 among the well-educated middle-class people he'd grown up with & worked with
as an adult. While the English language is always growing & changing, formal
English remains heavily influenced by late-Victorian grammarians who wanted to
tidy it up.  :-)



 AK>  Can I, for instance, say, "I gave _them_ _them_ books"?


            I could say (that) that sentence may have been regarded as correct,
 at one time... but under normal circumstances I'd avoid using the same word
for two different purposes within the same sentence.



 AK>  It is not a matter of education, IMHO. 


            To some extent I think it is.  I had to make a conscious effort not
 to improve on the wording of my own example because although it's
grammatically correct it sounds awkward.  As an educated person I can easily
think of various alternatives... apart from leaving out the first "that"...
which would be a lot more pleasing to the ear.  More education -> more choices.
  Since English isn't your native language you may have fewer choices.  Like
the majority of Russians I've met here, though, you have a finely tuned ear &
you understand the grammar
... both of which can be put to good use in discussions like this.  :-)



 AK>  But Eliza got her English with her mother's milk.


            Uh-huh.  If we reckon Eliza was born during the 1890's & her mother
 was born +/- twenty years earlier... a not unreasonable assumption, IMHO,
since I was informed by an older female relative that the onset of puberty
around the 50th parallel of latitude occurred much later in those days than it
does now... Eliza's mother would have taught her to speak in a manner which was
 regarded as quite acceptable during the 1870's.  I don't know precisely when
or how the use of "them" as a demonstrative pronoun fell into disfavour, but I
imagine neither Eliza nor her mother would have studied any academic debates
about it....  :-))



 AK>  We can admit that she had an ignoble pronunciation,


            ... Higgins' chief concern, at least initially.



 AK>  but mixing _them_ and _those_ is too much, IMHO.


            Whatever its official status is nowadays, I wouldn't do it....  :-)



 AK>  I like when you write something complicated and
 AK>  nativenglishly. ;=)


            I'm delighted to hear that, because I imagine my readers will learn
 most if I keep stretching the limits of their understanding... [chuckle].



 AK>  But when a person has nothing to say to the point
 AK>  he usually starts carping at other person. 


            I've noticed such goings-on elsewhere too.  As often as not someone
 catches them at it, however, and says "I see you've run out of arguments". 
:-Q




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)