From an anti-SOPA rant: _ me_ as subject

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jan 20, 2012, at 10:32 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> "The US government is deciding that THEY can decide what _me_ (as a
> Canadian not subject to American law) can do."
>
> Bizarre.

(what's the source?  i haven't found it via googling.)

actually moderately common.  back in February 2006, Thomas Grano did a search for me and found large numbers; his report used the following quote as a header:

"This really blew my mind, the fact that me, an overfed, long-haired, leaping gnome, should be the star of a Hollywood movie."
-lyrics from song "Spill the Wine", by Eric Burdon

Grano's sample had 19 examples with _me_ + an appositive (as in WG's example and the Burdon quote) and 23 with _me_ plus a loose modifier (_for one_, _however_, _too_).   in cases where the verb shows person features morphologically, the verb agreement goes either of two ways:

  1sg:
    Heya party people, the holiday season is upon us and me for one am excited.
  3sg:
    me, for one, is the first to admit I have got a long long way to go

  (for the appositives, you might analyze 3sg agreement as agreement with the nearest, since the appositive phrase is 3sg.)

arnold

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