I have been having a debate with some colleagues regarding whether certain subordinating conjunctions, namely "after" and "before", can allow ellipsis of the predicate. Here are some relevant examples: (1) The tap dancers will perform after Jane and I. (2) The tap dancers will perform after I. (3) After I, the tap dancers will perform. Several of my colleagues claim that these sentences are grammatically correct according to formal, standard English. My intuition tells me that these are impossible in any form of English. Sentences 1-3 strike me as hypercorrect forms generalized from the prescriptive rule that allows for the ellipsis of a predicate, leaving a subjective pronoun, with "than" and "as", as in the following: (4) Marcia is much more intelligent than I. (5) Claire is as enthusiastic as he. In fact, sentences with "than" and "as" followed by subjective pronouns are acceptable to me only in very formal writing. The only source I have found so far that discusses cases like 1-3 is Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik. Basically, they say that the subjective pronoun is unacceptable in sentences like "Nigel finished the exam after/before I". The function of words that can be both prepositions and conjunctions can be distinguished by what form their complements take. In other words, the preposition "after" takes an objective pronoun whereas the conjunction "after" takes a subjective pronoun plus a form of "do" or the main verb. Variants of (2) would then be (2a) The tap dancers will perform after me. or (2b) The tap dancers will perform after I do/perform. Quirk et al. is, however, primarily a descriptive grammar and doesn't hold the same weight for some people as a prescriptive grammar does. Can anyone point me toward a prescriptive grammar that deals with this issue? What are your opinions of the sentences above? Do you readily accept or reject sentences 1-3? I would appreciate any input ATEGers could give. Thanks, Kevin Lemoine, Editor __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail – Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/