In Modern English, ''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 homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar ...

, first-person

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) 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 parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not ...

Morphology

In Standard Modern English, ''I'' has five distinct word forms: * ''I'': the nominative (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 The accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark 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,' 'us,' and ‘ ...

(objective) forms (The accusative case is also called the ' oblique'.) * ''my:'' the dependent genitive (possessive) form * ''mine'': the independent genitive * ''myself'': the reflexive form

History

Old English Old English (, ), 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 was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

had a first person pronoun that

inflected In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and de ...

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

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

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...

*''ik'', and ''ek''; The asterisk denotes an unattested form, but ''ek'' was attested in the Elder Futhark inscriptions (in some cases notably showing the variant ''eka''; see also ek erilaz). Linguists assume ''ik'' to have developed from the unstressed variant of ''ek''. Variants of ''ic'' were used in various English dialects up until the 1600s. The Proto-Germanic root came, in turn, from the

Proto Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

(PIE) *''eg-.'' *Early OE circa 700 CE, late, and ME Old English ''me'' and ''mec'' are from Proto-Germanic *''meke'' (accusative) and *''mes'' (dative). ''Mine'' is from Proto-Germanic *''minaz'', and ''my'' is a reduced form of ''mine''. All of these are from PIE root *''me''-.

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 ...

, determiner, 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; I saw myself.'' * Predicative complement: ''The only person there was me'' / ''I.'' * Dependent determiner: ''I met my friend.'' * Independent determiner: ''This is mine.'' * Adjunct: ''I did it 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 phrases. *

Relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...

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 modifier: ''the real me'' * Adverb phrase external modifier: ''Not even me''

Semantics

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

person A person ( : people) is a being that 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 such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

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

Pronunciation

According to the OED, the following pronunciations are used:

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * *
Etymology of I
. etymonline.com. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. *
Etymology of Me
. etymonline.com. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. * Halleck, Elaine (editor).

. LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998. * Jacobsen, Martin (editor).

. LINGUIST List 9.253., n.p., Web. 20 Feb. 1998. * Mahoney, Nicole.
Language Change
. nsf.gov. 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