LINGUIST List 3.654

Wed 26 Aug 1992

Disc: Drift, Coordination and Case-marking

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Directory

1. Michael Newman, Re: 3.651 Drift, Coordination and Case-Marking
2. Why are people talking about my back?, Re: 3.651 Drift, Coordination and Case-Marking
3. Michael Kac, Re: 3.651 Drift, Coordination and Case-Marking

Message 1: Re: 3.651 Drift, Coordination and Case-Marking

On Richard Ogden's observation that there is a tendency to use WE in such
phrases as WE LINGUISTS, well way back in the 60s there as an adverstising
campaign that I only remember because it drove my 7th grade English teacher
to fits of apoplexy. It featured someone with a black eye and the slogan:
"Us Terryton smokers would rather fight than switch." I can just imagine her
writing to RJ Reynolds or whoever telling them to say "We Terryton smokers..."
But can you imagine if they had followed her advice?! This is clearly a case of
register.
Michael

Message 2: Re: 3.651 Drift, Coordination and Case-Marking

wrt 3-651, for me the "we" in "we linguists" must agree in case.

	(1) Nobody likes us linguists.
	(2)**Nobody likes we linguists.

However, in casual speech you get the accusative in nominative position:
	(3) Us linguists gotta stick together.
This intuitively strikes me as coming from the same register that produces
	(4) Me and him like chocolate.

Susan Fischer

Message 3: Re: 3.651 Drift, Coordination and Case-Marking

Richard Ogden remarks that one tends to find *we X* (as in *we linguists*)
in both subject and object positions. I'll weigh in with the declaration
that "*Nobody pays attention to we linguists* is odd and that I have no
trouble with *Nobody pays attention to us linguists*. Indeed, in colloquial
American English it seems to work the other way around: you get *us* in
both positions, as in *Us linguists gotta stick together*. The fact that
in American Eng. at least this is colloquial to the point of verging on
the nonstandard would seem to suggest that *we X* in object position is
indeed a hypercorrection.

Michael Kac