typo?

choose   Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:52 am GMT
"In the black community, there's been all over the country anticipation of his being in harm's way," Lawson said.

"his" should be "him" right?
eeuuian   Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:58 am GMT
"his" looks OK to me.

Perhaps there's a missing comma after "country"?
choose   Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:21 pm GMT
Also, on more than one occasion, I've seen writers use "Ms." as prefix for Palin. Shouldn't it be "Mrs." instead since she's married?
A more original name   Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:00 pm GMT
There was an entry at language log recently about the journalistic use of Ms. vs Mrs. (eg Mrs. Clinton vs Ms. Palin)and it seems to be that they go by the person's preference.
JTT   Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:20 pm GMT
<<"In the black community, there's been all over the country anticipation of his being in harm's way," Lawson said.

"his" should be "him" right?>>

It's an oddly constructed sentence, but the use of 'his' looks okay to me, too. I, personally, would put a comma after 'country'.

<<Also, on more than one occasion, I've seen writers use "Ms." as prefix for Palin. Shouldn't it be "Mrs." instead since she's married?>>

In the US, the use of 'Ms.' is pretty much standard for women in public office and in business, regardless of her marital status.
Invité d'honneur   Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:18 pm GMT
Yeah, "his" is correct.

This construction is similar to:
- Would you mind my smoking? (Would you mind if I smoked?)
- She isn't going to let his being married get in her way (She won't be stopped by the fact that he's married).
- How hard is it to do your own work? -- Apparently, similar in difficulty to your being polite to newcomers. (It's as difficult for me to do my own work as it is for you to be polite to newcomers).
Another Guest   Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:22 pm GMT
-"His" and "him" give slightly different meanings.
-There shouldn't be a comma after "country" unless there is also one after "been".
-The whole point of "Ms." is to have to have title that can be used regardless of marital status. It can be an abbreviation of "Mrs" or "Miss".
feati   Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:05 pm GMT
When I first read such a sentence in school, I also thought it was a mistake because I'd had English for quite a few years but had never come across such a sentence.
Isn't the version with "him" much more frequently used?
And what's the difference in meaning you mentioned, Another Guest?

Oh, and by the way: We have a similar construction in German. We call it "nominalisierte Verben" (which would be something like "nounified verbs" in English). And I think it's actually the same in English. If you say "his being in harm's way", then "being in harm's way" takes the place of a noun. If you say "him being in harm's way", it's just a simple participle clause like it's found in many other sentences.
eeuuian   Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:17 pm GMT
<<Isn't the version with "him" much more frequently used?>>

I'd say it might be somewhat more common (and perhaps informal), but I don't think it's much more common.
choose   Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:24 pm GMT
"This construction is similar to:
- Would you mind my smoking?"

This example covers it for me.
Thanks
Uriel   Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:02 am GMT
<<"In the black community, there's been all over the country anticipation of his being in harm's way," Lawson said. >>

Feati and our "honored guest" above put it very well.

It's perfectly correct, and is interchangeable in meaning or usage with "him being in harm's way" -- but I will point out that as a native speaker, I would "hear" the two sentences as having slightly different structures. In "his being in harm's way", I really do think of the "his" as a possessive, and "being in harm's way" as a quality that he possesses. So the sentence reads for me exactly like "In the black community, there's been all over the country anticipation of his vulnerability" or "his status as a target". The phrase "being in harm's way" begins to act as a noun.

With the change of a single letter, the meaning remains the same, but that sense of having a phrase act as a noun changes -- being goes back to being a verb that goes with him.
Milanya   Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:08 pm GMT
"...of his being in harm's way" is absolutely correct.

A noun or pronoun linked immediately with a gerund should be in the
possessive case.
Another Guest   Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:43 am GMT
At least to my ears, "his" implies more of a present tense: he is in harm's way, and people anticipated it. "Him" implies future tense: he's not in harm's way, but people anticipate that he will be. Once you put "his", it is a noun phrase. "being in harm's way" then means "the state in which he is in harm's way". Some verbs can have a similar "nounification" through the suffic "ation". For instance "his being impersonated" means the same thing as "his impersonation".
choose   Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:34 pm GMT
I just came across another example:
"Obama says there never has been any question about his being black."

However, it will take me a while to fully comprehend the difference.