Re: the case of the conjoined NP

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ant=F3nio_Marques?= wrote:
> > I don't know. Both are grammatical for me, and I'm not sure under
> > what conditions I prefer one over the other. I imagine someone has
> > looked at this, but I don't know who.
>
> Him leaving... gerund, tense
> His leaving... supine, noun
> ? (in this case, of course)

Greenbaum et al. say somewhere that one focusses more on the person
and the other on the action, though I can't say which is which at the
moment.

Verbs of observation prefer the objective case subject
``I noticed him leaving''
as do lengthy subjects
``The workers and supervisors leaving''

Prescriptivists prefer the genitive on some theory or other, apparently
unaware that non-finite (untensed) verbs have objective case subjects.

--
Ron Hardin
rhhardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.
.

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