Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!nntp.sei.cmu.edu!news.psc.edu!scramble.lm.com!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in3.uu.net!world!jcf
From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: How do you parse "It's me" ?
Message-ID: <Dw3Jnx.2z2@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <200@stt.win-uk.net><4uq0o3$309@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> <203@stt.win-uk.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 21:57:33 GMT
Lines: 16

It is common to explain this usage as a "disjuctive form" analogous to
the French "c'est moi", "c'est lui".  Whether the construction was
actually imported from French, I don't know.

Even fussy grammarians such as Fowler & Follett are inclined to be
tolerant of it, at least in speech.

Ogden Nash, who had a fine ear for colloquial English, used this
construction movingly in the lines

  And the small boy broke down and said "me".
  And it was me, or at least, I was him....
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        495 Pleasant St., #1    (617) 324-6899
        Malden, MA 02148
