Re: Cases, again

Herman Miller wrote:
> English speakers are taught to use the nominative after "than" (under
> the theory that "than" is "really" a conjunction), but I've never heard
> anyone use it that way in actual speech.
I sometimes do, actually, but there are many uses where the subject
sounds "wrong" (Like "He's taller than she" sounds weird, and I'd never
say it).  I'm not sure what the rules of my idiolect are*.

The prescriptive rule is actually that you use the nominative if the
pronoun is compared to another nominative, object if it's compared with
object, e.g., "He's taller than she", but "I hate her more than him",
since "than him" is considered to be an ellipsis of "than [I hate] him"

*Actually, on second thought, I think I usually just use "be" or "do"
with the subjects, e.g., "He's taller than she is", "I ate more cookies
than she did" ("I ate more cookies than her" would sound wrong to me,
but "He's taller than her" is acceptable, but not what I'd naturally
say)