Me First!: The Use of Personal Pronouns in Canadian English
Katarina Fischer, Jenny Kenmir, Natalie Poirier
Queen’s University
Introduction
We all learned those grammar rules in middle-school
English class: “It’s ‘Sally and I went shopping’, not ‘Sally
and me went shopping’. Do we follow these rules later in
life, or do we conform to the incorrect uses that are all
too common in spoken language?
Part B: Percentage of Incorrect Responses
90
80
70
Objective
Number of Incorrect Responses
60
In English, specific pronouns perform different functions
within the sentence. Personal pronouns are restricted to
their respective subject (e.g. I love ice cream) and object
(e.g. Megan loves me) positions. The form of almost all
personal pronouns in English (excluding 2nd person
singular and plural, ‘you’) varies depending on whether
the pronoun is acting as subject or object (e.g. ‘I’ vs.
‘me’). We noticed that it is common for Canadians to
confuse the use of these personal pronouns, especially
those of the 1st person singular (e.g. ‘I’ vs. ‘me’). The goal
of our study is to look at this phenomenon in greater
depth – to examine the context in which it occurs and the
plausible causes
.
1.
Native Canadian English speakers are more likely to
confuse subject and object pronouns (specifically 1st
person singular) when there are multiple subjects or
objects.
• Results of Part B:
o NS, ≤5 and 6-11 speakers all consistently answered incorrectly
questions 3, 11, 12 and 15 (see Fig. 5), which the 12+
consistently answered correctly (see Fig. 1). This supports
Hypothesis 1, 2 & 3 .
o Many chose the incorrect pronoun when it occurred in a list in
subject position (e.g.. question 7 (see Fig. 5)), however only
the majority of 12+ chose the correct pronoun when it
occurred in a list in object position (e.g.. question 15). (see Fig.
1) This supports Hypothesis 1.
50
Native
Under 5
40
6 - 11
Over 12
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Question
• Results of Part C:
o The majority in all groups preferred the form “x and I” in
subject position. (see Fig. 2)
o The majority of the 12+ group chose the correct pronoun in
object position. The NS and ≤5 consistently chose the wrong
pronoun (‘I’) when in object position. The 6-11 fall somewhere
in between. (see Fig. 3 & 4). This shows that the longer you
have been learning English, the more likely you are to reflect
the patterns of a native speaker. This supports ……… ….
Hypothesis 2 & 3.
Figure 1: Results from Part B of survey, depicting percentage of incorrect responses (where ungrammatical
pronoun was chosen) by group.
Subjects
Study Details
Hypotheses
Results and Analysis
For our study, we composed a survey comprised of:
• Part A: background questions on speaker variables
(e.g. proficiency in CE, age of acquisition, etc.)
• Part B: 15 fill-in-the-blank questions (see Fig. 5)
• Part C: 3 questions testing respondents’ use,
preference, and ranking of 4 different sentences, as
well as whether or not they have heard each usage.
The survey was distributed to both native and non-native
speakers of CE at Queen’s University. Subjects were divided
into 4 groups based on the age at which they started learning
English:
• native speakers (NS) - 57 respondents
• 5 years and under (≤5) - 6 respondents
• 6-11 years (6-11) - 14 respondents
• 12 years and older (12+) - 12 respondents
Survey Excerpt
3. Jenny told Sara and _____ the secret. (mine, I, my, me)
7. ______, Jake and Trevor passed the football. (he, his, theirs, him)
11. Dylan and _____ went running. (his, he, theirs, him)
12. Practices had been scheduled for Natalie and _____ (my, mine, I, me)
15.The midterm was easy for Kat, Nat and _____. (I, mine, me, my)
Figure 5: Example questions from Part B of survey (all are instances of
multiple subjects/objects).
Preference for Pronoun in Object Position after a
Verb
80
70
When forced to place the pronoun for the 1st person
singular at the beginning of a list of multiple
subjects/objects, native Canadian English speakers
will select the object pronoun (‘me’). However, in all
other cases, speakers are more likely to use the
subject pronoun (‘I’), and place it after all other
subjects/objects.
Preference for Pronoun in Subject Position
Preference for Pronoun in Object Position after a
Preposition
120
80
100
50
60
Native Speakers
Under 5
6 - 11
40
40
Native Speakers
Under 5
30
6 - 11
20
Over 12
20
10
A
"I and Dave went .to
the store"
B
C
D
"Dave and me went to "Me and Dave went to "Dave and I went to the
the store."
the store."
store."
Sentence
0
A
B
"The secret stays
"The secret stays
between Maggie and between Maggie and
me."
I."
C
"The secret stays
between me and
Maggie."
D
"The secret stays
between I and
Maggie."
Sentence
Figure 2: Results from Part C, Question 1, depicting preference
of sentences.
Native Speakers
30
Under 5
20
6 - 11
10
Over 12
Figure 4: Results from Part C, Question 3, depicting preference of sentences.
Over 12
0
40
A
B
C
D
"Andrew called me " Andrew called I and "Andrew called Jane "Andrew called Jane
and Jane."
Jane."
and me."
and I."
Sentence
60
80
50
0
70
Percentage
3.
Native speakers of Canadian English (CE) are more
likely to make this mistake than are speakers of
English as a Second Language (ESL). This may be due
to the fact that ESL speakers have more recently
acquired the grammatical rules of English and are
therefore more likely to adhere to them.
Percentage
2.
Percentage
60
Figure 3: Results from Part C, Question 2, depicting preference
of sentences.
Conclusion
All groups chose the correct pronoun when it occurred on its own.
However, the presence of multiple subjects/objects, the order of
subjects/objects (e.g. they preferred ‘me’ over ‘I’ at the beginning of a
list of multiple subjects/objects), and the age at which CE was first
acquired, increases the possibility for confusion of pronoun usage. We
predict that this loss of case distinction between subject and object
pronouns in the spoken language will continue. This would impact
acquisition of CE as a Second Language.