Me neither
Q:
Can you offer an explanation for the use of the object pronoun "me" in
the phrase "me neither"?
As in:
|
A.
|
I don't like football.
|
B.
|
Me neither.
|
Olga Rodriguez Charry
ABC English Institute
Bogota, Colombia
olgaharc@andinet.com
Posted 19 February 2003
A:
English offers a variety of ways to say that the second- mentioned person
or thing has something in common with the
first. In the case of the exchange above, possible rejoinders include
these:
|
A: |
I don’t like football. |
B: |
Nor do I. (hyperformal, unnatural in conversation) |
|
Neither do I. (standard) |
|
I don’t either. (standard, informal) |
|
Me neither. (nonstandard) |
Compare:
|
A:
|
I love pepperoni pizza with chocolate chips.
|
B:
|
So do I. (standard, informal)
|
|
I do too. (standard, informal)
|
|
Me too. (Very informal but common)
|
Why the objective form? Quirk et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the
English Language (Longman, 1985) explain the usage of objective forms
in informal usage (as in Who’s there? It’s me. or He’s more
intelligent than her.) in terms of "subject territory" and "object
territory." They say, "In informal
English ?the objective pronoun is the unmarked [default]
case form, used in the absence of positive reasons for using the subjective
form."
In the present example, since there is no verb with which
to make the pronoun agree, the "unmarked? pronoun choice
for the rejoinder is me. The use of the negative adverb
in Me neither makes the utterance not just informal but
nonstandard. For teaching purposes it’s best to stick with the standard
forms, at least for production.
Marilyn Martin
|