me first!: the use of personal pronouns in canadian english katarina fischer, jenny kenmir, natalie...

Me First!: The Use of Personal Pronouns in Canadian English Katarina Fischer, Jenny Kenmir, Natalie Poirier

Queen’s University

Hypotheses

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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

IntroductionWe 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?

ObjectiveIn 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.

Study DetailsFor 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.

SubjectsThe 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

ConclusionAll 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.

Figure 2: Results from Part C, Question 1, depicting preference of sentences.


Results and Analysis

• 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.

• 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.

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)

A"Andrew called me

and Jane."

B" Andrew called I and

Jane."

C"Andrew called Jane

and me."

D"Andrew called Jane

and I."

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Preference for Pronoun in Object Position after a Verb

Native SpeakersUnder 5 6 - 11Over 12

Sentence

Perc

enta

ge

Figure 1: Results from Part B of survey, depicting percentage of incorrect responses (where ungrammatical pronoun was chosen) by group.

A"The secret stays

between Maggie and me."

B"The secret stays

between Maggie and I."

C "The secret stays between me and

Maggie."

D"The secret stays

between I and Maggie."

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Preference for Pronoun in Object Position after a Preposition


Sentence

Perc

enta

ge

A_x000d_"I and Dave went .to the store"

B_x000d_"Dave and me went to the store."

C_x000d_"Me and Dave went to the

store."

D_x000d_"Dave and I went to the store."

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Preference for Pronoun in Subject Position


Sentence

Perc

enta

ge

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 150

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Part B: Percentage of Incorrect Responses

NativeUnder 56 - 11Over 12

Question

Num

ber o

f Inc

orre

ct R

espo

nses

Figure 5: Example questions from Part B of survey (all are instances of multiple subjects/objects).


me first!: the use of personal pronouns in canadian english katarina fischer, jenny kenmir, natalie...

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