english pronoun case (was Re: everybody...their)

Fri Apr 20 20:45:28 UTC 2001

>>> zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU 04/20/01 01:39PM >>>

are you maintaining that HIM in "I SAW 'im" is necessarily focused, or
topical, or both?

Are you claiming that "'im" is derived from "him"?  The form hasn't been interpretable unambiguously as 3sm or 3p since Old English days.  In fact, in OE it could also have been 3sn.  Has it been reanalyzed in ModE, beyond losing its neuter meaning?

Herb