I (pronoun)
First-person singular personal pronoun
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Related on Lably
Through Reflexive pronoun and Determiner
Morphology
In Standard Modern English, I has five distinct word forms:
- I: the nominative (subjective) form
- I is the only pronoun form that is always capitalized in English. This practice became established in the late 15th century, though lowercase i was sometimes found as late as the 17th century.
- me: the accusative (objective, also called 'oblique') form
- my: the dependent genitive (possessive) form
- mine: the independent genitive (possessive) form
- myself: the reflexive form
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History
Old English had a first-person pronoun that inflected for four cases and three numbers. I originates from Old English (OE) ic, which had in turn originated from the continuation of Proto-Germanic *ik, and ek; the asterisk denotes an unattested form, but ek was attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions (in some cases notably showing the variant eka; see also ek erilaz). Linguists assume ik to have developed from the unstressed variant of ek. Variants of ic were used in various English dialects up until the 1600s. The Proto-Germanic root came, in turn, from the Proto Indo-European language (PIE) *eg-.
Old English me and mec are from Proto-Germanic *meke (accusative) and *mes (dative). Mine is from Proto-Germanic *minaz, and my is a reduced form of mine. All of these are from PIE root *me-.
Syntax
Functions
I can appear as a subject, object, determiner, or predicative complement. The reflexive form also appears as an adjunct. Me occasionally appears as a modifier in a noun phrase.
- Subject: I'm here; me being here; my being there; I paid for myself to be here.
- Object: She saw me; She introduced him to me; He gave me the book; I saw myself in the mirror; It was a picture of me.
- Predicative complement: The only person there was me / I; I made her mine.
- Determiner: I met my friend.
- Adjunct: I fixed the problem myself.
- Modifier: the me generation
Coordinative constructions
The above applies when the pronoun stands alone as the subject or object. In some varieties of English (particularly in formal registers), those rules also apply in coordinative constructions such as "you and I".
- "My husband and I wish you a merry Christmas."
- "Between you and me..."
In many dialects of informal English, the accusative is sometimes used when the pronoun is part of a coordinative subject construction, as in
- "Phil and me wish you a merry Christmas."
This is stigmatized but common in many dialects.
Dependents
Pronouns rarely take dependents, but it is possible for me to have many of the same kind of dependents as other noun phrases.
- Relative clause modifier: the me I'd like to be; *me I'd like to be
- Determiner: the me I'd like to be; *the me
- Adjective phrase modifier: the real me
- Adverb phrase external modifier: Not even me
Semantics
I's referents are limited to the individual person speaking or writing, the first person. I is always definite and specific.
Pronunciation
According to the OED, the following pronunciations are used: