Most of us English-speakers were told as children that it’s wrong to say me and him went to the park,<\/i> and we should instead say he and I.<\/i> And many of us grow up extending the lesson to where it does not belong: the letter was addressed to she and I.<\/i> Purists like me expostulate in vain: one wouldn’t say or to she<\/i> or to I,<\/i> or indeed to we,<\/i> so why to she and I<\/i>?<\/p>\n
It now hits me that, in all these years of wincing at between he and I,<\/i> I’ve never asked why children make the opposite error. Children rarely if ever say me went<\/i> or him went,<\/i> so why was it so much more natural to say me and him went<\/i>?<\/p>\n
Perhaps in all of these phenomena the partnership is considered a new entity, distinct from its components. So now I’m inspired to ask: In languages that still have a strong case system, e.g. Russian, what is the genitive of a company name like Sears & Roebuck<\/i>? Do both elements become genitive, or only the last, or is the whole thing indeclinable, or what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most of us English-speakers were told as children that it’s wrong to say me and him went to the park, and we should instead say he and I. And many of us grow up extending the lesson to where it … Continue reading