Disjunctive pronoun


A disjunctive pronoun is a stressed form of a personal pronoun reserved for use in isolation or in certain syntactic contexts.
In Modern English, this function is fulfilled by the object pronouns when used in stressed or isolated positions or after linking verbs.

Examples and usage

Disjunctive pronominal forms are typically found in the following contexts. The examples are taken from French, which uses the disjunctive first person singular pronoun moi. The English translations illustrate similar uses of me as a disjunctive form.
Disjunctive pronouns are often semantically restricted. For example, in a language with grammatical gender, there may be a tendency to use masculine and feminine disjunctive pronouns primarily for referring to animate entities.

"It's me"

In some languages, a personal pronoun has a form called a disjunctive pronoun, which is used when it stands on its own, or with only a copula, such as in answering the question "Who wrote this page?" The natural answer for most English speakers in this context would be "me", parallel to moi in French. Unlike in French, however, where such constructions are considered standard, English pronouns used in this way have caused English grammar|dispute]. Some grammarians contend that the correct answer should be "I" or "It is I" because "is" is a linking verb and "I" is a predicate nominative, and up until a few centuries ago spoken English used pronouns in the subjective case in such sentences. However, since English has lost noun inflection and now relies on word order, using the objective case me after the verb be like other verbs seems natural to modern speakers.
Historical evidence shows that the use of object pronouns as disjunctive forms has been common since the beginning of Modern English. Early authors, including William Shakespeare, employed “me” after the copular verb in exactly this way—for example, “Oh, the dog is me, and I am myself”. Such attestations indicate that “me” in constructions like “It is me” has long-standing precedent in English, challenging the prescriptive claim that only “It is I” is grammatically correct.
"It is I" developed from the Old and Middle English form "It am I". In that earlier construction, "it" was used as the complement of "am", but in Modern English "it" is the subject, which explains why speakers naturally use object pronouns after the verb in this position.