Well, actually I know nothing about
transformational grammar, except that it has something to do with
Noam Chomsky, and I don't think it has anything to do with what I
want to talk about, which is the transformation I have noticed in
recent years in the way educated people, or at least young educated
people, speak.
I work for the student society at the
University of British Columbia. I don't hang out with the students,
but I interact with them a fair bit. Also, my colleagues tend to be
of a younger demographic, and it was one of these colleagues who
first shocked me back in the late 90's when he talked about some
meeting he was going to, saying: “Her and I will talk about tuition
tomorrow.”
Actually, I don't remember what he said
they would talk about; what I do remember is his use of “her and
I.” Now, I was brought up to learn a certain sort of grammar in
which subjective case was distinguished from objective case. The
pronouns I, he, she, they
were to be used when they were the subject of a sentence; me,
him, her, them was for when these pronouns were used as
objects.
Everyone still follows that distinction
when there's only one subject or one object, I think. I don't think
I've heard people say, “Her will talk to us about tuition tomorrow”
or “Me want to go fishing.” (Well, maybe infant would-be
fishermen say the latter.)
The change has happened with compound
subjects and objects. I would have said, “She and I will meet
about tuition” or “John and I will talk about tuition.” But
now people will say “Her and I.” I confess that I hear that
phrase so much that “She and I” has come to sound a tad precious
to my ears, a little stuffy, like something out of a book or out of
another century (which of course it is, just like me).
I think I have heard “Me and John
will talk about tuition”; I hesitate I suppose because I can't
believe that's what people say now, but I'm in fact pretty sure
that's what university students and the others I encounter at the
student society do say.
Some people would be appalled. In some
moods, I'm appalled. It's the fault of the elementary schools,
teaching self-esteem and creativity instead of grammar rules, they
say. And maybe it is. But I'm not sure fault is the right word.
The language always changes. The authors of Beowulf
would have been shocked at the way we talk: you use the same word for
“the” all the time? Whether it's a subject, an object, an
indirect object, a plural, a masculine, or a feminine?
(Yes, Old English
had masculine and feminine grammatical forms, like French. In fact,
it had a neuter form too, like German, which is not that surprising,
since it was German, the German dialect of those Angles and Saxons
who travelled from Germany to take over Britain from King Arthur's
hardy Celts. But that's another story.)
We have lost the
feminine, masculine, neuter distinctions. We have lost the 16
different ways to say “the.” We have lost the distinction
between subject and object for nouns; we have retained it only for
pronouns (I versus me, he versus him, etc.) -- and now even that may
be going.
I wonder if one day
“she” will disappear, and we will only have “her.” As
between “me” and “I,” that's a tougher one. Though “me”
seems to be ousting “I” in “Me and John will discuss tuition,”
in places where I was trained to use “me,” “I” has taken
over. “That's between John and I,” people say. Or “He gave
that to John and I.” There you have “I” used where traditional
grammar would say you have to use the objective case (“me”).
So what do we have
now (acknowledging that we may be in transition):
Traditional
20th-century grammar:
She and I will meet
tomorrow.
John and I will
meet tomorrow.
That's between me
and John.
He gave that to me
and John.
Young People's 21st-century grammar:
Her and I will meet
tomorrow.
Me and John will
meet tomorrow.
That's between John
and I.
He gave that to John and I.
Except the last two sentences may be
more common in a slightly older demographic, among people who
remember being corrected for using “me” with another pronoun (“Me
and John are going out to play”) and deduced that “I” is always
to be used when there's another noun or pronoun.
Now I'm not sure how the younger
demographic would say those last two sentences. One thing I am sure
about is that pronoun cases are interchanged much more readily these
days, prompting some to call for a return to the basics in the
schools.
“Her and I” is not what I was
taught, but I wonder if it's the way of the future, and if one day
“she and I” will sound as archaic as the sixteen ways to say
“the” or words like “forsooth.” The language moves in
mysterious ways.
