The Case of Prufrock's Grammar

Melvin J. Luthy

doi:10.2307/375710

College English Mar 1978

The Case of Prufrock's Grammar

Melvin J. Luthy

Abstract

WHEN T. S. ELIOT penned the words, Let us go then, you and I, he could hardly anticipate that students and teachers of English grammar would find so much interest in his use of the first person pronouns. As a linguist I found nothing amiss in his expression, but one day I overheard a colleague explaining that the grammatically correct form of the sentence should have been, Let us go then, you and me, so that the pronouns (you and me) would be in the objective case, together being the appositive of the us, the subject of the infinitive phrase, us go, which is the object of the verb let. Wait a grammatical minute, I interrupted. sentence is absolutely correct; you are simply being misled by a surface structure which has the same form as the objective case but, which, in fact, is not. The words that followed cannot be printed here, but I will attempt to reconstruct my argument to convince other traditionally minded colleagues of the error of their ways and to restore a degree of grammatical dignity to J. Alfred Prufrock.

Journal: College English
Published: 1978-03-01
DOI: 10.2307/375710
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: grammar and mechanics
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The Case of Prufrock's Grammar

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