From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 14 1995 - 07:02:27 EST
At 10:25 PM 12/13/95, James D. Ernest wrote:
>I beg the indulgence of list members for a question of English grammar.
>Which is correct (grammatically):
>
>A: The Son of Man is the Messiah whom Jesus claims to be.
> ^^^^
>B: The Son of Man is the Messiah who Jesus claims to be.
> ^^^
>Analogously:
>
>A: Jesus claims to be him.
> ^^^
>B; Jesus claims to be he.
> ^^
>
>We would say:
> He thought himself to be the Messiah (objective case).
> ^^^^^^^
>...but this is different, is it not, because there is no direct
>object in my examples. I'm sure I could have figured this out
>when I was in seventh grade, but now I find myself at a loss.
>If pressed: I vote for the nominative.
>
>I suppose an off-list reply would be more appropriate.
Perhaps it would, but (1) this is a pet peeve of mine,and (2) as the list
appears to be bombarded by posts that I mailed out more than a week ago (is
it the eve of Saturnalia?), I'll chime in here.
I too vote for the nominative in the above instances, but I hear in ever
greater frequency the nominative used where it shouldn't, according to the
old-timey rules: "This is the very best thing for HE AND I" and the like.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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