nom. for acc. (again)

[Beverly Flanigan]

I saw this hypercorrection switcheroo today in a syndicated newspaper
article on a released prisoner:  The ex-prisoner said his wife had stuck
with him because they had sworn "Till death do we part."  Amusing, if
impossible.

Then again, maybe it's not the usual hypercorrection.  Since the
subjunctive mood of the frozen phrase is probably no longer understood, the
speaker (many, perhaps?) may have thought 'we' and 'do' must agree since
'death' and 'do' couldn't.  I use a couple of such frozen phrases in class
to illustrate syntactic change, and students often can't explain the
structures even though they know the phrases "by heart":
So be it
Be that as it may
Albeit
Would that it were so
And more word order inversion:
With this ring I thee wed
etc.

Beverly

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