In my terminology what is a relative pronoun which is inclusive of the antecedent in your sentence. A leading figure in the Scottish enlightenment, Adam Smith's two major books are to democratic capitalism what Marx's Das Kapital is to

I'm still poking around here. The "absolute / nominative" guy had a second example: "Him watching TV he forgot to call his mom." I would have said, "He - - - ." As I think about it, a usage is coming into my

"Nominative" is the adjectival form of "noun." It doesn't get used very much on this site. I think I've seen MrP use it one time. It's always something of a tossup as to whether a "noun phrase"

Hi, berkeley, thanks for joining us. Welcome to English Forums. I understand the usage of "you and I." E.g. "Andrea and I will eat tonight." I also understand that you can say "They yelled at Andrea and me."

...for some value of "the literature." See http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001133.html#more, about halfway down in the discussion of the "Retart Zone". The entire article, both parts, is well worth reading.

As it happens, "he not being a big-shot writer or ... things to dictate how or whether or not they're grammatical.) I'm having trouble with all this. If it's a "nominative absolute", why wouldn't the nominative form

Just to be sure I understand, does it follow then ... big-shot writer or anything" cannot be justified in traditional grammar? Nothing about traditional grammar follows from what he said; he barely even mentioned traditional grammar at all.

It should be 'his'. Others will be able to tell you why. Still others will, doubtless, differ. I would have said "he" in that sentence. But "with his not being" would work for me. I'm looking forward to a

Doubtless. Isn't the nominative "he" called for there? Listen,(1) I can't be right all the time. That'd be scary. Thanks for the correction. I learn something new every day. (Incidentally, was that originally a statement of

} }> I read this in a newspaper column recently: }> }> "Then he asked if Manchester would really want ... from me over the years, but my trusty old American Heritage Dictionary (I) brought it back for me: Yeah, exactly: an English