"Obsolete," but still in use

Sun Sep 24 15:57:34 UTC 2006

On Sep 24, 2006, at 8:39 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> I'd call the "me" usage colloquial.  Uninterestingly, I'm not sure
> if I use it.
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:  ----------------------
> Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Isn't "Me, I really like that" pretty standard? I also would use such
> a locution without giving it a second thought...

it seems colloquial to me too, but perfectly fine in speech and
informal writing (that is, it's not non-standard).  but i absolutely
could not use "I" to mark the topic like this.  i think that either
you don't use the construction, or you use a non-nominative:
   "me" colloquial
   "myself" or "me myself" non-standard
or you go for another topic-marking construction, like "as for".

arnold

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