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observations
Apr. 30th, 2003 09:50 amI just observed and realized something very interesting from an English major's POV: People, over the last couple of years, have almost completely forgotten the differences between the words "me" and "I" as used in sentences.
For example: My boss just left a voicemail with one of the attourneys and said, "Lara, it's Ray. Let Joanna or I know if you need copies of the Maryland Rules of Court books." Now, as every English student knows, the use of the pronoun "I" pertains to a verb: "I went to the store." "Ray and I work in the library." However, people have forgotten that you're not supposed to switch around me and I. People say, "Leave it on the desk for Amy and I." "Liz and me went to the movies." I'm trying to figure out what happened to make such a glaring error in American language. Even I slip up, and then I slap myself mentally. I think it's because the younger generation doesn't like Strunk and White too much. I don't blame them, really, but people should know decent grammar when they see it. I've seen the English language mangled too many times on mailing list posts by people who think they're being "stylish" when all they're doing is making it impossible for other people to read their writing. Spelling isn't the issue, because many of us are dyslexic. It's just tossing around pronouns and propositions as if they don't mean anything anymore.
Sorry, I'll step off the soapbox now.
For example: My boss just left a voicemail with one of the attourneys and said, "Lara, it's Ray. Let Joanna or I know if you need copies of the Maryland Rules of Court books." Now, as every English student knows, the use of the pronoun "I" pertains to a verb: "I went to the store." "Ray and I work in the library." However, people have forgotten that you're not supposed to switch around me and I. People say, "Leave it on the desk for Amy and I." "Liz and me went to the movies." I'm trying to figure out what happened to make such a glaring error in American language. Even I slip up, and then I slap myself mentally. I think it's because the younger generation doesn't like Strunk and White too much. I don't blame them, really, but people should know decent grammar when they see it. I've seen the English language mangled too many times on mailing list posts by people who think they're being "stylish" when all they're doing is making it impossible for other people to read their writing. Spelling isn't the issue, because many of us are dyslexic. It's just tossing around pronouns and propositions as if they don't mean anything anymore.
Sorry, I'll step off the soapbox now.
