Talk:Subject complement
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[edit] Original research?
Is this original work? RickK 05:37, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)
The It's I/It's me debate is really a specific example of the usage of subject complimnts. This content should therefore be moved to an article with such a name, and use this an example of the dispute. Lofty 15:26, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
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- "This is she" sounds very odd in colloquial British English, but I believe this is not the case in American English - in an episode of Friends, Rachel says "This is she" when answering a phone call. (Edmund1989 13:20, 14 May 2007 (UTC))
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- The whole section on that is a mess now. It's clearly nonsense anyway - people are trying to explain it coming from different viewpoints and they don't mix. Personally I would go with the French disjunctive pronoun argument, because clearly, it IS gramatically incorrect to say "it is I" but people reject this based on their prescriptive grammars (Edmund1989 (talk) 23:03, 23 March 2008 (UTC))
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[edit] 'Tis I
I just tossed in 'tis I parenthetically into the first line. To my ear, you can say 'tis I, but not 'tis me, even if we all accept "it's me". Agreement?samwaltz 15:25, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Popular references
There is a New Yorker cartoon in which the newly minted college graduate calls home and introduces himself with "It is I." In fact, that is the entire text of the cartoon. (Robert Day, 1956) This topic and problem are certainly well-known, if not known well. Shenme 01:58, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Accuracy?
It seems to me that there are several things wrong with this article:
1. The opening statement "It is commonly held that..." Is it? By whom? I've yet to see a dictionary that lists "be" as a transitive verb, so you would need to be ignorant of grammar to suggest that 'be' can take an object. If this statement is to stand, I'd like to see it justified.
2. Who are the "prescriptive grammarians" (I've already changed the nonce word 'grammaticans') who regard "It's me" as a mistake? Certainly no current English grammar would say so, I think.
3. The use of "It's me" versus "It's I" is described as "rather common", which I think is inaccurate - it's later described more accurately: "the use of the subjective in the subject complement has almost entirely disappeared".
4. I agree that this should be part of the Subject complement article.
Unless there are objections, I'll return and make changes.
--Nyelvmark 20:54, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
- I disagree with this merger. Subject complement is a very general concept, found in many languages. The debate over "It's I" versus "It's me" is quite specific to the English language. FilipeS 20:58, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] December 2007
Note on French - "moi" is the disjunctive pronoun, which is why I have reverted to theprevious edit (Edmund1989 (talk) 18:30, 5 December 2007 (UTC))
[edit] May 2008
What cases such as the following:
a) The boss took me to lunch.
b) The boss took Fred to lunch.
c) The boos took Fred and I to lunch.
The third usage is sadly common in spoken English, as the general lack of understanding of grammar seems to lead some speakers to prefer 'I' where 'me' would be correct.
I'm not sure that this is the proper page for this observation, but my guess is that someone else will know. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Smitty1e (talk • contribs) 01:24, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
