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(Forgive me if this is the wrong place for this, this is my first time posting)
If I say, "I am going to the store", what is the "I" in that sentence? It's a pronoun referring to the proper noun Ryan King.
If I say, "Ryan is going to the store", I'm an illeist.
If I say, "Ryan am going to the store", I'm actually still referring to myself in the first person, but just not using the pronoun.
Has anyone heard of this being used? It seems to make more sense than the redundant, "I, Ryan, am going to the store".
- Ryan King
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Ryan: Without meaning to seem unfriendly I think it sounds dialectical, uneducated,
not very useful, though easily understood.
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stranger
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As for dialectical - I haven't heard it anywhere, so I wouldn't even call it that. =)
However, as for "uneducated" - I think it only sounds that way because it's unfamiliar. If you think of "I" as merely a pronoun, and consider that pronouns should be able to substitute for the noun they stand for, it seems to work.
And as for not-very-useful - I can think of at least one case. The legalese of "I, Ryan, hereby declare that..." could be refactored to merely: "Ryan hereby declare that...".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, thanks, Ryan for the new word for me: illeism - ( )
The practice of referring to oneself as "he" or "she", or by one's name .
I've heard small children executing this illeism, most notably a little five-year-old boy who was instructed to sit down along with the other children, and he said,
"Jeremy don't want to.
Of course, to make his use of illeism a bit more grammatical (under the circumstances), he should have said,
"Jeremy doesn't want to..
Back to your question about "I." "I" is simply a first case singular pronoun, and it takes the first case singular verb "am" in order to have subject-verb agreement. "I" functions as the subject of the sentence and "am" as the verb.
Does this answer part of what you're asking?
I would say your "illeist" example of "Ryan's" taking a first case singular verb is simply ungrammatical. In order to be grammatical, the word "Ryan" requires the third case singular verb. "Ryan is going to the store" is a grammatical sentence, but becomes illeist only if you, Ryan, speak it.
Hope this helps a little!
BEst regards,
WW
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stranger
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It comes down to this question: What, precisely, does "first person" mean?
Is it any time the author refers to the author, or only when doing so by use of the pronoun "I"?
If the latter, well, that would explain why we've never heard anything like "Ryan am going to the store", as well as making the term "first person" disappointingly simplistic.
If the former...
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yeah, I think it's interesting when verb form changes because of pronoun use. to me it means that pronouns are a little more than they purport to be. 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Ryan,
These are basic English grammar questions you're asking. I'll bet there's a good grammar site online you can check out, but I'll give you some basic answers to your questions:
Ryan: It comes down to this question: What, precisely, does "first person"
mean?
Response: When making verbs agree with their subjects, you consider which "person" the subject of the sentence is. A list that is memorized in school is: "I, you, [he, she, it], we, you, they." Some of those pronouns are singular and others are plural. This is how you can break them down into a visual list:
Singular:
First Person -- I
Second Person -- you
Third Person -- it
Plural:
First person -- we
Second Person -- you
Third Person -- they
Now back to first person. First person singular refers to yourself. The pronoun that takes the place of yourself is "I." That first person singular requires a specific kind of verb agreement. Take the verb "to be." You must use the verb "am" with the pronoun "I." You can't use "is" or "are," for instance, and maintain a sentence that is grammatically correct with regards to standard English. But you can (and some do) say "I is" if you want to; you're just not using standard English.
Now what is the plural of "I"? What would the first person plural be? You just think of yourself in a group of people, with yourself in the middle of it. How would you refer to what your group wants, for instance? You wouldn't refer to them as "they" because you're part of that group. You would say, "We want" whatever it is you want.
Second person singular is kind of the opposite of "I." One person opposite you would be "you." And the plural form of you is "you" again.
Third person singular (he, she, it) refers to either a singular person or thing that you are not directly addressing (as you were in the case of "you"). The third person plural would be "they."
The important thing about understanding first, second, and third person (whether singular or plural) is that it helps cause your subjects to agree with your verbs, sometimes a hard task in complex sentences.
You asked, "What does first person singular mean?" It simply means you as you refer to yourself. And your refer to yourself, when you are the subject of a sentence, as "I." Period. Not as Ryan. Just plain ol' "I." That's what it means.
Hope this helps.
Ryan: Is it any time the author refers to the author, or only when doing so by
use of the pronoun "I"?
Response: Ryan, anytime anyone refers to himself, whether in writing or speaking, first person singular form functioning as the subject of a verb would be "I."
Ryan: If the latter, well, that would explain why we've never heard anything
like "Ryan am going to the store", as well as making the term "first
person" disappointingly simplistic.
Response: It would be very rare for me to write a sentence in which I refered to myself as "Wordwind" here. I would refer to myself consistently, if the subject of my own sentence, as "I." It may be simplistic, but it works. In very formal appeal, however, I, Wordwind, could add my name "Wordwind" as I just did. But it's a bit weighty and would be used only for very serious or very humorous situations.
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stranger
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These are basic English grammar questions you're asking.
Yes, exactly. A mind, to keep itself fresh, should constantly churn, revisiting new and old concepts in the same moment.
It simply means you as you refer to yourself. And your refer to yourself, when you are the subject of a sentence, as "I." Period. Not as Ryan. Just plain ol' "I."
English seems to have fewer periods (".") than it has Periods ("Period.").
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
And your refer to
yourself, when you are the subject of a sentence, as "I."
Sorry about the superfluous "r" in the above. It should have read: "And you refer to yourself..."
And, Ryan, I was not being sarcastic or insincere about the "period" part of my sentence. I was making an honest attempt to be helpful. I simply meant that there is only one grammatically correct first person singular pronoun that I can use to replace my own name in a sentence and that pronoun is "I" (standard English).
Period.
Period is a nice word, I think, for indicating that the writer in no way means to waffle.
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stranger
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In reply to:
And, Ryan, I was not being sarcastic or insincere about the "period" part of my sentence. I was making an honest attempt to be helpful. I simply meant that there is only one grammatically correct first person singular pronoun that I can use to replace my own name in a sentence and that pronoun is "I" (standard English).
I was being a little sarcastic about "Period"s. But the sarcasm was directed at the English language:
What we have here, apparently, are these rules:
- Pronouns are used in place of nouns.
- First person is when the author refers to the author
- All pronouns can be re-replaced with the noun they replaced, except the grump of a pronoun, "I"
Which of those rules seems inelegant to you?
Eventually I'll learn to accept the chaos of the English language, but every now and then I forget.
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