Objective & Personal Pronouns

[riverkid]

Good day, Naomi. If you'll note, it wasn't my argument.

There was no suggestion by me, as I didn't offer anything in this regard, or the CGEL that the nominative was losing ground, if in this you mean, "become less common". There's no doubt that nominatives are in common common use in English.

They were saying that the only place where it maintains a secure position is when it is used on its own, as in,

She went to the movies.

As to the other issues you raised, it's really quite simple. The speakers of a language determine the rules of the language. There are portions of the language that are standard and there are portions that are nonstandard.

Nonstandard does not mean incorrect. Standard does not mean correct. To conflate the two is a mistake, a common one but a mistake nevertheless.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by riverkid

...
Standard does not mean correct.

Oh come on, Riverkid. Show me something that is regarded as Standard English usage and is incorrect. There is no such thing!

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by engee30

Oh come on, Riverkid. Show me something that is regarded as Standard English usage and is incorrect. There is no such thing!

You've misunderstood, Engee. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

Standard English
Standard English is the language we use for public discourse. It is the working language of our social institutions. The news media, the government, the legal profession, and the teachers in our schools and universities all aim at Standard English as a norm of communication, primarily in expository and argumentative writing, but also in public speaking. Standard English is thus different from what we normally think of as speech in that Standard English must be taught, whereas children learn to speak naturally without being taught. Of course, Standard English shares with spoken English certain features common to all forms of language. It has rules for making grammatical sentences, and it changes over time. The issues of pronunciation discussed in this book mainly involve how to pronounce specific written words or written letters, such as ch or g, in different words. The guidance to pronunciation is not meant to standardize or correct anyone’s naturally acquired form of spoken English.

The name Standard English is perhaps not the best, since it implies a standard against which various kinds of spoken English are to be measured, and this is hardly a fair comparison. A better name might be Institutional English, Conventional English, Commercial English, or Standardized English for Writing and Public Speaking, but these names all have their own negative connotations and shortcomings. So, since Standard is what this brand of English has been called for generations, we use the name here.

Nonstandard English There are many expressions and grammatical constructions that are not normally used in Standard English. These include regional expressions, such as might could, and other usages, such as ain’t and it don’t, that are typically associated with dialects used by people belonging to less prestigious social groups. These nonstandard varieties of English are no less logical or systematic than Standard English. In this book an expression labeled nonstandard is not wrong; it is merely inappropriate for ordinary usage in Standard English.

Introduction. The American Heritage Book of English Usage. 1996

I could show you many prescriptions that are incorrect.

[engee30]

Originally Posted by riverkid

I could show you many prescriptions that are incorrect.

I'm waiting, Riverkid.