A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

210 Chapter 13 Non-finite clauses and clauses without verbs

Infinitival clauses

In to-infinitivals a personal pronoun with a nominative-accusative contrast always
takes accusative form: I

[9] [For them to refuse you a visa] was quite outrageous.

ii All I want is [fo r us to be reunited].

Gerund-participials

Here the facts are more complex. There are various case possibilities for subjects of
gerund-participles, but they differ depending on whether the clause is a complement
or an adjunct.

Gerund-participial as complement

In the following examples the clause is complement of the preposition on:

[10] She insisted on [lli.Y / me being present throughout the interview].

II She insisted on [her father's / her fa ther being present throughout the interview].

III She insisted on [there being a counsellor present throughout the interview].

Here, and in most other complement functions, we find both genitive and non-genitive
subjects.

If a personal pronoun subject is not in the genitive, then it takes accusative case,

as with me in [i].

The choice between genitive and non-genitive depends partly on style and

partly on the type of NP. The genitive is characteristic of fairly formal style,

and overall it is relatively infrequent. It is most likely with personal pronouns,

and next most likely with short singular NPs denoting humans, like her fa ther's

in [ii].

Some NPs, such as there in [iii], cannot take genitive case at all.^2

Gerund-participial as adjunct

When a gerund-participial is in adjunct function, as in [11], genitive subjects are not
permitted at all: the choice is between nominative and accusative:

[11] She sought advice fro m Ed, [he being the most experienced of her colleagues].

II She sought advice fro m Ed, [him being the most experienced of her colleagues].

The accusative is markedly informal and somewhat unlikely: the construction itself
is relatively formal, so the accusative tends to sound out of place here.

I However, when the pronoun does not form the whole subject, but is part of a coordination, some
speakers have a nominative: %They've arranged [for you and I to be picked up at six] (see Ch. 5, §8.3).
2 This there is a dummy (i.e. meaningless) pronoun discussed further in §4.2 below.