Abstract
Either as an adjective or a pronoun means 'one or the other' or 'one and the other.' Some grammarians say the letter is archaic and should be avoided in current English, but others think it acceptable, especially in preposition groups. The meaning and the usage of either are ambiguous and delicate. We have examined many dictionaries and grammars, and at the same time collected a lot of examples from novels and essays. Then we made the following conclusion. In current English, either in the meaning 'one and the other' is archaic. Though it may occur in more or less literary English, spoken and ordinary written English usually prefer each or both. Both, however, suggests the group-character of the two ideas referred to, but each takes them singly. So each is preferred to both in place of either. Either is said to take the singular verb, but it is now often treated as a plural because of the fundamental plurality of the conception. Either is sometimes used with regard to more than two.
