this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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"_ and I" hypercorrection, or maybe reanalysis if we're being more descriptivist.
It's an interesting subject, and I'm kind of split on it as an amateur linguist, but as an English speaker it sticks out like a sore thumb to me. I think English prescriptivism has pushed the order of pronouns in collective noun/pronoun phrases too much (eg. he and I, not I and him), and people have started to reanalyze the phrase as a noun phrase in itself, but not everyone so it sounds weird to a slice of the population. Then there's disjunctive pronouns that throws a wrench in the works.
Note: asterisk means it sounds ungrammatical to speakers of the language in linguistics (me in this case), no asterisk means okay to say. Also later correct reformulation means it's less common but still correct:
Alice, Bob and I are going.
*I are going.
I am going.
Me, Alice, and Bob are going.
*Me are going.
*Me am going.
Want to join me?
*Want to join I?
*Want to join Alice, Bob and I? <-- this is the one that annoys me, but you might think it's fine
Want to join Alice, Bob and me?
Alice and Bob aren't going probably, but me, I'm going for sure
Alice and Bob aren't going probably, but I, I'm going for sure
It's me who is going
It's me who am going <-- this is pushing it
It's I who is going
It's I who am going <-- actually acceptable, but I still do a double take
Alice and Bob like to go more than me
Alice and Bob like to go more than I
Sometimes I can be tricked into overthinking something that I had taken as an unexamined given until it no longer makes sense to me.
And you just did that to me.
I was interviewed by a linguist about my other native language once and it broke my ability to say stuff in that language for a day or two. It's only fair I get to do that to an Anglophone too
Fair.
:0