My first linguistics paper ever was on the topic of "disjunctive"  
pronouns in French, and the fact (or so I concluded) that English was  
coming to resemble French in this way. It is unexceptional in French  
to say "c'est moi" (it is me), or to say "lui, il ne sais rien" (him,  
he doesn't know anything). French uses objective case in such  
situations, and English does, too.

I now suspect that there is a discourse motivation (using objective  
case in focus position, perhaps?) for these "disjunctive" pronouns.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/