Modern English Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England England is a Count ...

, ''I'' is the

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...

, first-person

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...

Morphology

In Standard Modern English, ''I'' has five distinct word forms: * ''I'': the

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...

(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 In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...

(objective, also called ' oblique') form * ''my:'' the dependent

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

(possessive) form * ''mine'': the independent

(possessive) form * ''myself'': the reflexive form

History

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

had a first-person pronoun that

inflected In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...

for four cases and three numbers. ''I'' originates from

(OE) , which had in turn originated from the continuation of

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

, and ; the asterisk denotes an unattested form, but was attested in the

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...

inscriptions (in some cases notably showing the variant ; see also ek erilaz). Linguists assume to have developed from the unstressed variant of . Variants of were used in various English dialects up until the 1600s. The Proto-Germanic root came, in turn, from the Proto Indo-European language (PIE) *'. Old English and are from Proto-Germanic (accusative) and (dative). ''Mine'' is from Proto-Germanic , and ''my'' is a reduced form of ''mine''. All of these are from PIE root *'.

Syntax

Functions

''I'' can appear as a subject,

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...

determiner Determiner, also called determinative ( abbreviated ), is a term used in some models of grammatical description to describe a word or affix belonging to a class of noun modifiers. A determiner combines with a noun to express its reference. Examp ...

, 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 phrase A noun phrase – or NP or nominal (phrase) – is a phrase that usually has a noun or pronoun as its head, and has the same grammatical functions as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently ...

s. *

Relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phrase and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments in the relative clause refers to the noun or noun phrase. For example, in the sentence ''I met a man who wasn ...

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 An adjective phrase (or adjectival phrase) is a phrase whose Head (linguistics), head is an adjective. Almost any grammar or syntax textbook or dictionary of linguistics terminology defines the adjective phrase in a similar way, e.g. Kesner Bland ( ...

modifier: ''the real me'' *

Adverb phrase In linguistics, an ''adverbial phrase'' ("AdvP") is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Some grammars use the label ...

external modifier: ''Not even me''

Semantics

''I'''s referents are limited to the individual

person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...

speaking or writing, the first person. ''I'' is always definite and

specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the final ...

Pronunciation

According to the OED, the following pronunciations are used:

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * *
Etymology of I
. ''Online Etymology Dictionary''. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. *
Etymology of Me
. ''Online Etymology Dictionary''. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. * Halleck, Elaine (editor).
Sum: Pronoun "I" again
". LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998. * Jacobsen, Martin (editor).
Sum: Pronoun 'I'
". LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998. * Mahoney, Nicole.
Language Change
". National Science Foundation. n.p. 12 July 2008. Web. 21 Dec. 2010 * Wells, Edward.
Further Elucidation on the Capitalization of 'I' in English
. (a paper in progress). Lingforum.com. n.p., Web. 25 Dec. 2010