a fan of me

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allthewayanime

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An extremely well-educated newspaper columnist was talking on TV about those people who like and who do not like his political views.
Then he said, "He [referring to a famous person] is not a fan of me."

I know that "good" English requires "a fan of mine," but can you grammar experts make a guess as to why this famous columnist made such a "mistake"?

Thank you.
 

bhaisahab

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An extremely well-educated newspaper columnist was talking on TV about those people who like and who do not like his political views.
Then he said, "He [referring to a famous person] is not a fan of me."

I know that "good" English requires "a fan of mine," but can you grammar experts make a guess as to why this famous columnist made such a "mistake"?

Thank you.
Not being inside his head, I wouldn't like to speculate. Who is this person by the way?
 

AlexAD

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Not being inside his head, I wouldn't like to speculate. Who is this person by the way?
Not a teacher, nor a native.
I think that most people make mistakes while speaking their language.
They even might not be aware of that. May be because they got used to the way they speak something.
 

Ilki

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An extremely well-educated newspaper columnist was talking on TV about those people who like and who do not like his political views.
Then he said, "He [referring to a famous person] is not a fan of me."

I know that "good" English requires "a fan of mine," but can you grammar experts make a guess as to why this famous columnist made such a "mistake"?

Thank you.

He may be a purist who does not like the double genitive. ;-)
If you asked me why the speaker's "I" can't be in accusative case - which is the case prepositional comlements normally take -, I would become very hot under the collar.:oops:
 

5jj

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If you asked me why the speaker's "I" can't be in accusative case - which is the case prepositional complements normally take -, I would become very hot under the collar.
Most writers today prefer 'object(ive)' to 'accusative'.
 
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