LANGUAGE MATTERS By Kristen di Gennaro

Do you enjoy language and watching it evolve over time? Perhaps you’re a grammar nerd whose heart sings when the right verb form is used. Or maybe you get frustrated when people misuse certain words. Matters Magazine cares about language too and herewith initiates a new “Language Matters” column.

The Evolution of “and I’s”: Between you and me

A year or so ago, a stu­dent emailed me something like, “Did you get Andy and I’s paper?” This was my first time seeing the form “and I’s,” and I assumed it was just an idiosyncratic attempt at formal writing. Since then, however, I’ve seen it several more times. A colleague of mine confirmed she’s seen it too. A quick internet search uncov­ered comments about “and I’s” as far back as 2006, so it isn’t even as new as I thought.

It’s easy enough to figure out what the student was asking, but why say it that way? I suspect it’s for the same reason that some say, “Thanks for in­viting Andy and I to your party” and “Just between you and I,” phrases that probably go unnoticed by most people. I hear and see variations of these “and I” usages on a daily basis (or as we say today, on the daily) by students as well as colleagues, jour­nalists and public speakers.

Such phrases are examples of what linguists call hypercorrection. People who say or write “and I” are avoid­ing – consciously or not – the ob­ject pronoun “me,” probably because they were taught to write “Andy and I” instead of “Me and Andy” at the beginning of a sentence, as in “Me and Andy walked to school together.” After being told enough times that “Me and Andy” is incorrect, people then over-apply the rule to all cases in which they would have used “me,” including situations where “me” is the grammatically correct form. The stig­ma attached to “me” has apparently

spread to “my,” introducing “Andy and I’s.”

A grammarian would explain these sentences in terms of the subject pronoun (in this case, “I”) versus object pronoun (“me”) or possessive (“my”). As a linguist, I’m trained to observe, describe and attempt to explain, not to judge and correct (unless asked to do so.)

Linguists also like to point out that languages are forever changing, with individual changes occurring so slowly that people hardly notice them until they’re already well underway. The fact that “and I’s” has been around yet under my radar for probably more than 20 years illustrates this point.

So as much as I secretly cringe each time I see “and I’s,” I also celebrate witnessing language change in (somewhat) real time. Interestingly, when I typed, “Did you get Andy and I’s paper?” into Microsoft Word, no squiggly blue line appeared alerting me to check my grammar. I guess the grammar-ians behind grammar check have already accepted this language change.

What examples of language change have you noticed? Please email your thoughts or questions on language matters to Kristen di Gennaro, your local linguist at languagematters@mattersmagazine. com.

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Kristen di Gennaro is an associate pro-fessor of English at Pace University, where she teaches courses in linguistics. She lives in Maplewood and sometimes gathers language data during her commute on the train. To quote a poster in her office, “Keep your mouth open – linguists need data!”