nomconjobjs: between you and me/I

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:57 PM -0500 2/22/10, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Then (apologies if this has already been mentioned within the current
>thread) there's the nuclear option:  the reflexive.  This has also
>been addressed in the literature, often under the same
>"hypercorrection" rubric as "Give it to John and I".  As with the
>"me" > "I" within conjoined objects, the use of the 1st person
>reflexive in both conjoined cases ("That was written by Barbara and
>myself") and simple ones ("That was written by myself") has sometimes
>been attributed to concerns of politeness or diffidence, among those
>who don't want to appear egotistical or pushy but draw the line at
>"That was written by I". I'm sure, and Arnold may be able to point us
>to the relevant literature but for starters this viral reflexive is
>discussed in that Angermeyer & Singler (2003) paper we both cited
>earlier, although I think not in the Grano (2006) thesis, and I seem
>to recall Bill Safire complaining about it in one or two of his
>columns.

Oops.  Should have checked my trusty MWDEU!  Nice entry under
"myself", which begins by quoting one of those Safire columns,
although it's one that discusses the "unstylish though not incorrect
use" of reflexives in the conjoined cases (Jimmy Carter's discussing
"the transition from myself to the next President") rather that the
more widely disputed simplex cases, all of which are exemplified at
length and briefly discussed in the MWDEU entry (with reference to
both the Parker et al. American Speech article Arnold mentioned the
other day and Chomsky's treatment of the phenomenon, as well as
discourse analytic approaches...).

LH

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