Re: THEORY: English Pronouns (was Re: THEORY: Ergativity and polypersonalism)
| From: | Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, January 23, 2005, 15:36 |
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In a message dated 1/22/2005 10:16:14 PM Eastern Standard Time,
magwich78@YAHOO.COM writes:
>I wonder if, in future English, this trend will continue, abolishing all
>distinctions between subject and object pronouns
My guess would be that we don't seem to be heading to that point. It looks
to me more ike English is becoming a bit more like French: English "I" might
come to function like French "je", while English "me" covers the territory of
both French "me" and French "moi".
That is, so far as I can tell "me" is not ousting "I" in ordinary
non-conjoined subects - I've never heard *"Me went to the ballgame," except perhaps from
small children, while it's common to hear "Me and my brother went . . ." and
"Who went?" "Me."
Doug