I'm wondering about Terry Irons' assertion that pronoun case serves no
grammatical function. Perhaps it depends on how you define grammatical
function.
 
My very first foray into linguistics was a mini-paper I wrote as an
undergraduate. My thesis was that the case-marking function of pronouns in
English was shifting to the pattern of use of pronouns in French -- that
our objective pronouns are serving similar functions to the 'disjunctive'
pronouns of French -- emphasis, prosodic prominence, etc. If these are
grammatical functions, then such functions are still being served. I
certainly found great parallelism between French and English in this
respect. It would be interesting to look back to the period when French
was official in England, see if French was doing the disjunctive thing
back then, and see if it carried over into English as a result of French
influence. Or perhaps this is what happens to pronouns in all languages
that lose inflectional case. Any wisdom on this?
 
I would disagree that the case-marking (or at least case agreement)
function is entirely dead. If that were true, wouldn't pronoun form be
random? It isn't, of course; although many very educated people might say
'she bought it for you and I', none would ever say 'she bought it for I'.
Similarly, although one might say, 'you and me make a great pair' we'd
never hear 'me make a great teacher'.
 
I must say, though, that I wholeheartedly approve of the approach she
takes in testing out construction 'none other than'.
 
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Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184  E-mail: [log in to unmask]      ~
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