We're back, of course, to the fact that it is an
elliptical construction. The argument goes that since
the uncut version is

(3) My sister arrived at the movie theater before I
arrived at the movie theater.

all shortened versions should maintain the same
pronoun.

Of course, in natural speech we tend not to honor this
rule.  However, in the uncut version, as we like to
point out to students, we would never say

(4) * My sister arrived at the movie theater before me
arrived at the movie theater.

--- Kevin Lemoine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >(1) My sister arrived at the movie theater before
> I.
>
> >Do you suppose that the oddness of the above
> sentence
> >has more to do with sentence stress than with
> >ellipsis?
> >"I" gets a heavier stress in this sentence-final
> >position than we are used to hearing.  Consider how
> >much more  "normal" the following sounds, even
> though
> >purists would argue its correctness:
>
> > (2) My sister arrived at the movie theater before
> me.
>
> >Since we tend to hear "I" more frequently in
> >sentence-initial positions and "me" in more
> >sentence-final positions, our ears are more
> accustomed
> >to a light "I" and a heavy "me."
>
> >Helene Krauthamer
>
> Dear Helene (or anyone else),
>
> What argument(s) do you think purists would use to
> support the claim that sentence (2) is incorrect?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kevin
>
>
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