The use of objective case after "before" has a long history.  In the
1611 King James translation of the Bible, we find the following:

Matt. 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in
heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Matt. 28:7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from
the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye
see him: lo, I have told you.

In Late Middle and Early Modern English, the nominative form of the
second person pronoun was "ye", as in 28:7 "There shall ye see him".
"You" was the objective case form, as in "before you" and "told you".
While the "before you" in 28:7 is a now archaic use for what we would
say as "ahead of", in 5:12 it is arguable the same
conjunction/preposition "before" we've been talking about.

 

HL Mencken's The American Language has an interesting discussion of the
changing uses of objective pronouns in American English, but he's
addressing informal spoken English.  I did a short paper about 20 years
ago on this, in CLS20, arguing that control of case is shifting from
grammar to pragmatics, that anytime a pronoun is in focus it has to be
objective case.  This accounts for examples, largely colloquial, like

 

Me, I wouldn't say it that way.

Me and Jack are going hunting.

Us two will meet you at the park.

 

Bare subject pronouns, on the other hand, take subjective case because
the are topical:

 

I wouldn't say it that way.

 

It isn't that pronoun case is being lost, it's that the nature of
control over it is shifting.  Of course, formal language shifts that
control much more slowly than informal, so it remains an issue in the
teaching and editing of writing, with the result that we tend simply to
avoid awkward expressions like "It is I."  Actually, the last time I
heard that one used conversationally was nearly 50 years ago when I
called the daughter of my high school English teacher for a date.  I
asked for her by name, and she answered, "It is I."  I didn't allow that
to put me off.

 

Herb

 

________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gretchen Lee
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 1:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: using "before"

 

In a message dated 1/4/2006 10:43:31 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

	    Is our insistence on case endings still a throwback to
overvaluing latin? These prescriptions go on making people distrust
their own language.  Rather than improving writing, I think they have
the effect of shutting it down.  People don't need a new language, just
practice in the genres of writing.
	    We don't have to be prescriptivists to have strong values
and high standards. 

Craig,

 

I totally agree with you and many others about prescriptivism.  To bring
this discussion down to the mundane, however, I'd like to cite my lesson
plans for December.  I spent the three weeks before break going over and
insisting on my middle school students memorizing pronoun cases. They
made pronoun books and illustrated them on the computer. They wrote
poems, etc. about cases and when to use them. They chanted "it is I" and
looked at linking verbs.  (The French teacher, by the way, went out of
her way to stop in my classroom to shake my hand in gratitude!)

 

Why did we struggle through all this?  Do I not understand that the
pronoun cases are eroding? (There's an old joke about people in line at
the pearly gates; when St. Peter asks "who's there?" the people who
answer "It is I" have their own line labeled "English teachers.")  Of
course I do.

 

But questions on these sorts of things are one more way of sorting and
assigning numbers on standardized tests.  If I want my kids to get those
extra points that make such a difference nowadays, I have to teach it.
And if they don't get those points, guess who they come to?

 

Doesn't make it right.  Doesn't make it fair.  But we often have
prescriptivism forced on us by politicians and test writers.

 

Grumpily,

Gretchen  (wonderful discussion, by the way)

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/

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/