RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] free computer

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Fri, 5 Apr 2002, Mike Miller wrote:

> On Fri, 5 Apr 2002, McNutt, Justin M. wrote:
> 
> > The best part is it's probably a "Compaq".  LOL It's like "nucular"
> > instead of "nuclear" or "irregardless" or using "myself" when you don't
> > know whether to use "me" or "I" (which is still wrong).  HA!
> 
> OK.  Here are some embarrassing questions that I can't answer.  Which is
> correct?:
> 
> It is me.
> It is I.

A prescriptive grammarian would insist on "It is I", and would 
justify that on the grounds that it is a "predicate nominative".
As a former English major from a very proper East Coast school and a 
current psycholinguist, I can authoritatively say: pish tosh.

English ain't got no nominatives in any real sense beyond a couple
of pronouns since it only has a vestigial case system at this point.
English is one of the most extreme word-order driven language out
there (Chinese may be a bit more extreme.)  So, the only reason why
there is an "It is" in front of the pronoun is that English is a
truly bizarre language by world standards in that it always insists
on sentences having a subject even when they don't really have one.  
Check it out:

  It is snowing.  (or "It's snowing.")
  There is a unicorn in my garden.
  It's time to get serious with Windows' users
  That is me when I had just gotten my hair shaved off.
  That is me.
  That's me.
  That's me when I had just gotten my hair shaved off.

While "It is I" or "This is he" can probably still be said with a 
straight face by many people, I think it is clear that those two 
have become just fixed expressions.  Can anybody out there really 
imagine themselves saying any of these?

   That is I.
   That is she.
   It is she.

etc., all perfectly "good" predicate nominative uses that nobody 
uses.
 
> How is it that people misuse 'myself'?

Some people use "myself" as an intensive or contrastive form of "me"  
or "I" rather than just as a reflexive pronoun.  So:

  I want the supermodel and myself to work out our differences in
  an amicable fashion.

  The supermodel hates that geek and myself for our superior 
  knowledge of various Unix utilities.

A few other random units will use "me" as a reflexive form, albeit 
primarily in a couple of specialized constructions where you 
perform a service for yourself that you might ordinarily have 
somebody else do:

   I'm going to make myself a sandwich.
   I'm going to make me a sandwich.

OK, so now I can get back to shuffling through Drosophila protein
sequences.  Anybody out there know how to do a D. melanogaster
genome-wide screen for a 6-base sequence? :-)

jking


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