Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:26:29 -0400 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Brett,
Somehow I've managed to lose the last posting you made on this thread, the one containing the OED quote. Could you resend it?
Thanks,
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brett Reynolds
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 10:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Case of disappearing cases
Importance: Low
On 2010-08-18, at 8:54 PM, Herb wrote:
> Those rules weren't an accurate representation of English pronoun use in the 18th c. any more than they would have been five centuries earlier or two and a half later. But they are requirements of Formal Standard English today.
Yes, they are part of current formal standard English, but if they've been used in the non-standard way since middle English, then I'm not sure what basis there is for claiming that spoken English is shifting from case marking to focus marking. The word 'shift' implies change, but is the evidence for the change there?
Best,
Brett
-----------------------
Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning Toronto, Ontario, Canada [log in to unmask]
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/
|
|
|