LL-L "Morphology" 2002.02.26 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 26.FEB.2002 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Randy Elzinga" <frisiancow at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2002.02.26 (01) [E]

Ian:

Of course, the real classic is the English 'for you and I'.

Ron:

Very much so.  It's used so frequently around here that I am beginning to
expect it to become acceptable or even standard, if it has not already done
so.

Me:

I can remember in the second grade class mates saying something like "George
and me went to the playground" or "Me and George...".  My teacher would
correct them saying "George and I..."  but never explained why the first is
incorrect and the second is correct.  The rule, I suppose, was interpreted
to be that whenever a noun is joined to the first person singular pronoun by
the conjunction "and" the subject form of the pronoun is to be used
(somewhat like disjunctive pronouns in French perhaps).  About two years
ago, I corrected a friend of mine (who happens to be an English major, and
is required to take a course on English grammar) on the error in the phrase
"for you and I" (the preposition involved may have been different).  She
insisted that I was wrong, basically quoting the same supposed rule that my
grade two classmates (mis)interpreted.  I see similar errors to this one in
tutoring mathematics, where a student will look at an example as a model for
answering a simlar homework problem.  The student focuses on the wrong part
of the example as the key to to solving the problem, and gets the wrong
answer.  The root of the overcorrection in the phrase "for you and I", is
possibly a misdirected focus on what the actual error is.  It's worth
pointing out, I think, that I've never heard similar corrections being made
for the other personal pronouns, except, perhaps once in a while by myself.

Randy Elzinga.
frisiancow at hotmail.com

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