To "me" or not to "me", that is the question

[pne]

I'm in a bit of a quandary right now as to what kind of grammar to use around Amy when it comes to subject vs. object forms of pronouns.

The thing is, I was taught to use the subject form ("I, he, she") in certain constructions, but it seems to me that the object form ("me, him, her") is more natural to a large number of native English speakers.

The subject form is more correct according to conservative, prescriptive grammar; it also matches with what German (which inflects more strongly than English) does. But I wonder whether I should use this form or whether it's dated and unnatural.

The classic example is comparison statements. Does one say "He is bigger than me but she is exactly as big as me" or "He is bigger than I but she is exactly as big as I"? (There is, of course, also "He is bigger than I am but she is exactly as big as I am", where I think everyone uses the subject form of the pronouns, but that seems rather stilted to me, too, as the default form.)

Another example: Amy showed me a picture she had drawn in kindergarten and explained to me who the people on it were: "This is Anne and that am I and that is Nea". Fine in German ("das bin ich") but not only is the verb wrong for English (I think), the pronoun form is also questionable. I think it should be "...and that's ___" (with "is" rather than "are") but I'm not sure whether to say "and that's me" or "and that is I".

And a final, also classic example: responses such as "Who wants some cake? — Me!" or "Who spilt the orange juice? — Not me!", where conservative grammar would have "I" in each case (and German would have "ich").

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What do you think? "I" or "me" in that sort of sentence?

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And because I like polls: what is the most natural/spontaneous form you would use in the following constructions?

[Poll #1365332]

Comments

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

For many of them (Tom, Paul, cake) I would be only slightly more likely to say "me" than "I [verb]" (I am, I do) ... maybe 60/40.

BTW I looked this up in the Chicago Manual of Style and it says this:

Only the first- and most third-person pronouns show a change of case (the second-person you and third-person it keeping the same form as both subject and object, just as nouns do). In fact, the English language has only seven words that have different nominative and objective forms: I/me, we/us, he/him, she/her, they/them, who/whom, and whoever/whomever. A pronoun in the nominative case is either the subject of a verb {I like this china} {he has good posture} or, especially in formal English, a predicate nominative (after a linking verb) {this is he} {it was she who recommended the books}. (See 5.101.) A pronoun in the objective case is either the object of a verb {the crowd liked her} or the object of a preposition {the teachers were beside her}. In less formal English, pronouns in the objective case often encroach on the strictly correct nominative form in the predicate {it was her}. The opposite trend can be seen with an interrogative pronoun at the beginning of the sentence {Who are you going with?}. Grammarians believe that this gradual shift in the language, now ensconced in informal usage, has resulted from a widespread sense among speakers of English that the beginning of a sentence is “subject territory,” whereas the end of a sentence is “object territory.” And, of course, the irregularity of pronoun cases—there being so few in English—is not conducive to maintaining all the distinctions in the long term. But formal writers and speakers do maintain most of them strictly and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.

But of course one rarely uses pronouns, especially not first-person pronouns, in formal writing anyway, so I don't see that as a concern here.

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

But of course one rarely uses pronouns, especially not first-person pronouns, in formal writing anyway, so I don't see that as a concern here.

I agree. The only time I can think of when one would use first-person pronouns in formal writing would be in college or job applications.