Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

"How are you?" --- "I am good", isn't answering the question. It's answering a different question: "How would you assess your morality?"

I suspect that will get many objections!

OED good adj:

"of state or condition, health, order, etc.: Such as should be desired or approved, right, satisfactory; sound, unimpaired. Of state of mind, courage, spirits: Not depressed or dejected."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes, that's all very well. But the answerer is referring directly to himself/herself - not to his/her condition.

[french frank]

Yes, that's all very well. But the answerer is referring directly to himself/herself - not to his/her condition.

That's more relevant than his morality - the word 'good' has many more meanings than that.

The structure can't be ungrammatical: you can say 'I am happy', and 'I am good' = moral, virtuous. So your objection is on semantic grounds. ('Good' can't mean that.)

From a practical linguistic point of view, the only things therefore that matter are what the speaker intended and what the hearer understood by the phrase.

[scottycelt]

I was speaking to a younger colleague today, just back from holiday in Morocco:

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yes thanks. We went for a camel ride in the desert. Temperature was about 45 degrees. It was really cool!"

At least the answer was definitive if somewhat ambiguous, mangerton!

It may well have been more "like" .... 'Yes thanks. We went, like, for a camel ride in the desert, like. Temperature, like, was about 45 degrees. It was, like, really cool!'

Gerry & The Pacemakers old hit song 'I Like It' would have really gone down a wee treat today ... ?

[kernelbogey]

From a practical linguistic point of view, the only things therefore that matter are what the speaker intended and what the hearer understood by the phrase.

Among people I know who use this expression, I think the meaning conveyed is something like 'I'm fine, things are going well with me, everything's all right'.

It's just a new colloquial fashion, just as 'You all right?' is replacing 'How are you?'.

[David-G]

The only person that I know who uses "I'm good" is extremely irritating in other ways, too. Perhaps if I associated it with someone I liked more, I wouldn't find the expression quite so irritating?

The young people I know who say "I'm good" are quite delightful. Said by them I find the phrase rather endearing, even though I would never use this expression myself.

[vinteuil]

The young people I know who say "I'm good" are quite delightful. Said by them I find the phrase rather endearing, even though I would never use this expression myself.

Yes - I feel the same. I too wdn't use the expression myself - unless in postmodernist style, in quotation marks....

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes - I feel the same. I too wdn't use the expression myself - unless in postmodernist style, in quotation marks....

You have to stick four fingers up in order to do that, vints!

[french frank]

I wonder whether the problem isn't simply irritation at finding one's native language taken over by Americanisms and youthisms - both 'foreigners' in their different ways

[LeMartinPecheur]

...and would do so regardless of whether it was ungrammatical or not e.g. 'It's me.'

Clearly you don't believe that English has disjunctive pronouns (cf 'C'est moi.')! I do.

[vinteuil]

Clearly you don't believe that English has disjunctive pronouns (cf 'C'est moi.')! I do.

Me too. Moi aussi.

[scottycelt]

I wonder whether the problem isn't simply irritation at finding one's native language taken over by Americanisms and youthisms - both 'foreigners' in their different ways

I dont know about 'youthisms' ... after all even the crusty old members of this forum were young once, and no doubt remember how they loved to use different lingo to their stuffy old parents.

However, you're dead right about all these Americanisms which now appear to be eagerly adopted by some in all age groups ... even Mr GG is now frightening us all to death about 'elephants in the room'.

[mangerton]

At least the answer was definitive if somewhat ambiguous, mangerton!

It may well have been more "like" .... 'Yes thanks. We went, like, for a camel ride in the desert, like. Temperature, like, was about 45 degrees. It was, like, really cool!'

Gerry & The Pacemakers old hit song 'I Like It' would have really gone down a wee treat today ... ?

Indeed. That usage of "like" is bad enough. Even worse is the ever more common "I was like......" for "I said......".

Who on earth dreamed that one up?

[french frank]

Clearly you don't believe that English has disjunctive pronouns (cf 'C'est moi.')! I do.

No, sir - I do not and therefore I disagree likewise with M. Vinteuil on this subject.

Technically English has a usage analogous to/possibly borrowed from the French disjunctive pronoun, but these are not, historically, disjunctive pronouns. This doesn't mean that I would criticise such usages as 'It's me', but I would consider it a (technically ungrammatical) colloquialism (rather than a proper disjunctive usage).

That was really my point: that even if it is 'ungrammatical' - in quotes, of course - it's nevertheless perfectly acceptable.

Wiki says:

"In some languages, a personal pronoun has a form called a disjunctive pronoun, which is used when it stands on its own, or with only a copula, such as in answering to the question "Who wrote this page?" The natural answer for most English speakers in this context would be "me" (or "It's me"), parallel to moi (or C'est moi) in French. Unlike in French, however, where such constructions are considered standard, English pronouns used in this way have caused dispute. Some grammarians have argued and persuaded some educators that the correct answer should be "I" or "It is I" because "is" is a linking verb and "I" is a predicate nominative, and up until a few centuries ago spoken English used pronouns in the subjective case in such sentences."

Naturally, it follows that I disagree with these 'some grammarians' who argue that only 'I' is correct.

[Not for nothing is this thread called Pedants' Paradise . Over to you for a riposte!]

[Roehre]

Technically English has a usage analogous to/possibly borrowed from the French disjunctive pronoun, but these are not, historically, disjunctive pronouns. This doesn't mean that I would criticise such usages as 'It's me', but I would consider it a (technically ungrammatical) colloquialism (rather than a proper disjunctive usage).

That was really my point: that even if it is 'ungrammatical' - in quotes, of course - it's nevertheless perfectly acceptable.

Doubtful whether it originally wasn't used as such in English, as it is grammatically perfectly correct to use it in Friesian (and therefore not only in French), the former being one of the main sources of influence of Old-English.....