Great answers coming in on this question.

I called "become:" intransitive rather than linking (of which is it
indeed a prototypical example) to focus on the impossibility of
classifying "who" as a direct object. I'm glad Herb pointed out the
important fact that intransitives and linking verbs take different kinds
of complements. Linking verbs are still a type of intransitive, though,
are they not?

I find it quite bizarre to  say that the complement ("who") of an
infinitive verb ("to become")  which is itself the direct object of a
verb like "want" should be in the objective case (sorry for this
multi-layered clause). It sounds to me like a futile attempt to avoid
the real explanation: That speakers of English are shifting to different
criteria for their use of subject vs. object case. It is just too hard
for some hard-liners to accept the loss of the beloved "who/whom" and
"I/me" distinctions.

And Dick's post reinforces my remarks to the effect that the bizarre
sound of the "correct" form "I want to become he" signals how the
case-marking criteria are changing. French has long been using
objective-case pronouns in such positions, but I don't hear anybody
criticizing the French for doing so.

Another sign of the changes is that people who say or insist on "It is
I" are increasingly considered hair-splitting snobs. And also that I
again heard "whom" used in subject position on NPR today, and that quite
educated people are using subjective pronouns in conjuncts such as "for
  my friend and I". If we would all just stop insisting on the who/whom
distinction,  the random usages might go away.

***************************************************
Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. 805-756-2184 ~ Dept. phone 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374 ~  E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
***************************************************

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