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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Clarke who wrote (680)	1/9/1998 5:24:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 4711

I must admit: in spoken usage, I won't hesitate to say "it's me". I guess it is a colloquialism whose sound of informality somehow diffuses a threat. A verbal posture of nonaggression, perhaps? Said out loud, the correct form has a somehow scolding tone to it, sorta like when your dad uses your full and middle name as a form of address. Lets you know you've done something; might as well face the music and find out what. But I ramble. We had an exercise we useta do in high-school English. Teacher offered up a vocabulary word, and each student was supposed to use it in a sentence. My great amusement was to subvert the process. E.g.: pilfer: The doc gave me a pilfer my headache. My magnum opus was echidna. The old Italian exclaimed incredulously: "You're echidna me!"

To: Jack Clarke who wrote (680)	1/10/1998 11:10:00 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

Hi Jack, Gosh, I sure hope we can base a friendship on more than needing to agree about grammar! And I absolutely agree about "It is I" being a written and formal usage thing (See prior post to Alex), not always appropriate. But if we don't teach our children to "hear" it as correct, they won't accept itinto their working mental dictionary. Until middle school years, children seem to have two separate abilities -creative writing and grammar- and these aren't integrated well at all. I can't remember where I read this, but I've watched it happen in my sons. Right around 8th grade they both began to put the skills together. It's a fascinating process, and I wonder if schools are addressing it in the most productive way.