Non-Standard conjoined subject noun phrases

[Amy West]

>a number of linguists have noted that the scheme for vernacular case
>marking is:
>    use Nom for a subject (that is, a "complete subject");
>    use Acc otherwise.
>and some have claimed that this system is more "natural" than the
>prescriptive standard system.
>
>arnold

This is one of the "speech errors" ("Me and Billy went to the store")
that McWhorter says is not an error in _Word on the Street_, and
honestly, it surprised me. I guess my idiolect has internalized this
prescriptive rule. I've noticed my husband correcting our 13-year-old
when he says "Me and Dylan . . . " (but I haven't touched it).

---Amy West

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org