I apologize for leaving one of my sentences incomplete.  Here is my
complete thought:

And although I don't like #3 either [(3) This is just between you and I.],
it is extremely common, and I have even heard it in formal academic (oral)
presentations.  I think the appearance of the nominative form of pronouns
in a compound object construction like this is interesting because almost
no speaker ever uses the nominative form in objects that are not compound.
 This phenomenon seems to signal something to us about the nature of
compound NPs.  I think Pinker in The Language Instinct has something to
say about this construction, but I can't find the reference.


R. Michael Medley, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Eastern Mennonite University

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