LL-L: "Pronouns" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 09.JUN.1999 (05)

[Lowlands-L Administrator]

 ==========================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 09.JUN.1999 (05) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/~sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/>
 User's Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 ==========================================================================
 You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
 request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
 as message text from the same account to
 <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
 <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 ==========================================================================

From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at jmt.prestel.co.uk>
Subject: Pronouns

Ian wrate:

>Thus the English form "you" took over from "ye" as the subject form
>as well as the oblique. We also see this tendency in forms such as
>"it is me" (rather than "it is I" or even "It am I"), and very common
>non-standard forms such as "me and Louise went to the fair" and so
>on. Examples of this occur in non-Germanic Indo-European languages
>too - consider "C'est moi" in French (thus an oblique form) where the
>Latin requires a nominative/subject (as in Spanish "Soy yo").
>
>Thus as language develops, the subject forms are the ones that suffer
>loss. Already in Scots (in Ulster at least) they are only used if the
>pronoun is the subject of the sentence and stands alone: thus "A gang
>til (Sc. tae) tha shaws" but "me an him gangs til tha shaws"

I seem to remember reading that Sir James Murray, in his analysis of the
Scots of the Borders, called this type of pronoun 'indirect' as opposed to
the subject and oblique forms. In a footnote to a 19th Century Greek
grammar I have, the author describes these usages as 'classical' in Scots.

John M. Tait.

==================================END=======================================
 * Please submit contributions to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
 * Contributions will be displayed unedited in digest form.
 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are to
   be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
   <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
   type of format, in your submissions
 ========================================================================