Re: THEORY: English Pronouns (was Re: THEORY: Ergativity and polypersonalism)

Thought of anogher exacmple of accusative taking over the nominative's
job in coloquial English: "we" in apposition.  At least I think it's
apposition.  Things like "We the people", "We guys", "We English
speakers", etc.  IME these usually come out with "us", even in subject
form:

"Us English speakers have a hard time with Chinese."

etc.  Drop the appositon and "we" comes back; you'll never hear a bare
"Us have" unless the speaker is Bizarro or something. :)

-Marcos