The use of the nominative 1sg pronouns in co-ordinate
NPs in object position, most famously between you and I,
has received much attention from prescriptivists and formal
linguists, but it has never been the object of a variationist study
that compares its usage to that of other variants. This article seeks
to fill the gap, based on a data set of co-ordinate NPs in object
position, gathered through observation of everyday speech as well as in
experimental sociolinguistic interviews. Arguing that the choice of NP
case and of NP order is inseparably related, we identify three major
patterns of co-ordinate NPs: Vernacular me and X and two
post-Vernacular patterns, Standard X and me and Polite X
and I. We then examine social and linguistic factors that
constrain the usage of individual patterns. We conclude that all three
patterns are robust and that they exist in stable ternary
variation.This article, which we
authored jointly, arose from a paper we presented with Cecilia Cutler
and Keith Fernandes at NWAVE–XXVII in Athens, Georgia. Cece and
Keith worked with us in gathering the data and participated in
extensive discussion with us concerning the phenomenon under study. We
are grateful to them. The NWAVE paper itself grew out of a project in a
linguistic variation class at NYU. The other participants in the class
project were Tiffany Dugan and Agnieszka Rakowicz, and we thank them
for their help. We benefited from discussions with Arto Anttila, Jeff
Parrott, and Sharon Klein and from audiences at NYU and Stanford. E. W.
Gilman called our attention to several relevant articles, and Maryam
Bakht-Rofheart, Erik Falkensteen, Bill Haddican, and Ken Lacy provided
us with relevant examples from the media. We also thank Sandra Singler
Harding, Tom Leu, Erez Levon, Pat Reilly, and Arnold Zwicky. The
quotation from an Episcopal missionary appears courtesy of The Archives
of the Episcopal Church USA. We thank Jennifer Peters, archivist, and
her staff for their assistance.