prescriptivism, conventions, & JFK Jr.

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 05:31 PM 1/31/01 -0500, you wrote:
>On Wed, 31 Jan 2001, sagehen wrote:
>
> > ...  Another hypercorrection  of the reverse kind that I not only
> > hear but see in print increasingly is: "So-&-so and I"  instead of "So-&-s0
> > and me"  as objects of verbs or  prepositions. "She spoke to Bob and
> > I"...."He invited Mary and I."  The "and" seems to kick in a reflexive
> > *don't-use-/me/*  that I attribute to ill-understood corrections  from
> > teachers.
> > A. Murie
>
>This reminds me of a question I've wanted to ask for some time. During the
>media attention immediately following JFK Jr's plane crash, I saw an
>excerpt from a previously recorded interview in which he says "Caroline
>and I" in object position. I didn't know what to make of that, because
>I'd thought that:
>
>1. "X and I" in object position is an example of hypercorrection,
>2. hypercorretion is what the linguistically insecure middle class does,
>and
>3. JFK Jr. was not a representative of the middle class.
>
>This doesn't add up. What part is wrong?
>
>-Mai
>_____________________________________________
>Mai Kuha                  mkuha at bsuvc.bsu.edu
>Department of English     (765) 285-8410
>Ball State University

The upper classes aren't necessarily insecure, but they too learn to
hypercorrect from their teachers, the media, and equally gullible
peers!  (Besides, JFK Jr. was no paragon of super-intelligence or
super-education. . . .)

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm