[lit-ideas] Re: Anonymity and revelation...

Jeez, you guys could complicate a cast iron skillet. Sister Catherine Jane taught me that the objects of copulative verbs are ALWAYS in the nominative case and that objects of copulative verbs are not called 'objects' but 'predicate nominatives' -- a jesuitical trick, I take it, to get around the rule that objects are always in the objective case. I trust Sister Catherine Jane over everyone else -- she got her stuff straight from God.

Mike Geary
Memphis



----- Original Message ----- From: "Ursula Stange" <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 9:21 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Anonymity and revelation...


Hmmm....I'll have to think on that...
If you write, "I confess, it was...(him or he?)
I was taught (but not by nuns) that if 'him' would be correct, then 'me' is correct.
If 'he' is correct, then "I' would be correct.
If you're pointing across the school yard fingering an accomplice, wouldn't you say, "It was him"?
If yes, then "It was me" would also be correct, no?
But, perhaps, I did respond too quickly. Me'll think on it.
Ursula

Robert Paul wrote:

Ursula Stange wrote:

Actually, "It's me" is correct...
Didn't the nuns teach you anything?


I don't know from nuns, but whether it's 'It was me,' or 'It was I' is at least an open question. For the record, I was taught that it was the latter. Mike is saying, for short, 'I was I who dunnit.' If one asks 'Who dunnit?' the correct pronominal reply is 'He dunnit." The correct reply to 'By whom was it done?' is 'Him.' ('It was done by him.') And so on.


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