The grammar of English pronouns

Abstract A solution is proposed to explain the way personal pronouns enter into coordinations. This involves contrasting 1st person singular with the other pronouns. In essence, 1sg ‘subject’ form I is preferred as second member of a coordination (as in John and I are going , rather than * I and John are going ) whereas for the other pronouns the ‘subject’ form ( she , he , we , they ) is preferred as first member of a coordination (as in She and John are going , rather than * John and she are going ). 1sg also differs in that either I or me can function as copula complement ( It was I or It was me ) whereas for other pronouns only the non-subject form is acceptable in non-contrastive contexts ( It was him , not * It was he ). The syntactic implications of these principles are examined. There is also discussion of the role of pronouns in ‘gapping’ constructions.