Thursday, January 18, 2007
(7:48 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
"Which"
Normally, "which" is a relative pronoun. In everyday speech, however, I have noticed that in recent years it has taken up a new role. Like the traditional "which," this new use of "which" serves to introduce explanatory information, but it is normally followed by what is semantically an independent clause.Furthermore, the tendency is for it to introduce information that is negative in some way. An example: "So he got here like three hours early, which, he never even called me to let me know he was coming." It functions somewhat similarly to "however," but seems to have more strongly negative connotations.
Is anyone else familiar with this new usage of "which"? I personally have heard it so often that I find myself occasionally using it, which, maybe that's not such a bad thing. More importantly, does anyone have any idea how it could've arisen?
