nomconjobjs: between you and me/I

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 1:57 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> 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.

I took a stab at it here (mostly cribbing from MWDEU):

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1536/


--Ben Zimmer

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