Adisjunctive pronoun is a stressed form of apersonal pronoun reserved for use in isolation or in certain syntactic contexts.
InModern English, this function is fulfilled by theobject pronouns (me, you, him, her, us, them) when used in stressed or isolated positions (e.g., “Me.”) or afterlinking verbs (e.g., “It isme.”).
Disjunctive pronominal forms are typically found in the following contexts. The examples are taken fromFrench, which uses the disjunctive first person singular pronounmoi. The (sometimes colloquial)English translations illustrate similar uses ofme as a disjunctive form.
Disjunctive pronouns are often semantically restricted. For example, in a language withgrammatical gender, there may be a tendency to use masculine and feminine disjunctive pronouns primarily for referring toanimate entities.
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 acopula, such as in answering the question "Who wrote this page?" The natural answer for most English speakers in this context would be "me" (or "It's me"), parallel tomoi (orC'est moi) in French. Unlike in French, however, where such constructions are considered standard, English pronouns used in this way have causeddispute. Some grammarians[who?] contend that the correct answer should be "I" or "It is I" because "is" is alinking verb and "I" is apredicate nominative, and up until a few centuries ago[when?] spoken English used pronouns in thesubjective case in such sentences. However, since English has lostnoun inflection and now relies on word order, using the objective caseme after the verbbe like other verbs seems natural to modern speakers.
"It is I" developed from theOld andMiddle English form "It am I".[1] "It" was used as thecomplement of "am", but in modern English "it" is thesubject.[1]