Subjects of Infinitives, Ouch!

Currently, I'm preparing a few students for the SAT 1, which as you may know, now includes a Writing Skills section and an Essay to complement the long-standing Critical Reading section. Observe the following practice sentence which may or may not contain an error. The words or phrases in bold indicate a possible error except for the final possibility: e) "no error": Without the lettered answer choices, the sentence reads:

The committee had intended both you and I to speak at the assembly; however, only one of us will be able to talk. The committee a) had intended both b) you and I to speak at the assembly; c) however, d) only one of us will be able to talk. e) No error

If you selected "I" as the problem in choice "b", you were correct, but perhaps not for the reason you might have thought. The rule is: A noun (or pronoun) is in the objective case when it is used as the subject of an infinitive" according to Harper's English Grammar. Perhaps you had chosen "me" because it seems to come at the end of an elliptical prepositional phrase: "for both you and me." It looks as if "I" is in the position of object of the elliptical preposition "for" and is therefore the incorrect case. The correct case being "me." Technically, the phrase "both you and me" is adverbial.

Elliptical in grammatical terms simply means a word or words omitted which could be added to provide further meaning. In the sentence above, "me" is the subject of the infinitive "to speak" even though it is not in the subjective case. The quick explanation for this rule seems to be that larger units of syntax trump smaller units of syntax, an awkward way to put it, perhaps. The direct object of "had intended" lies embedded in the infinitive phrase "you and me to speak at the assembly." "Me" in the infinitive phrase must seemingly serve two masters: as direct object of the verb "intended" and as subject of the infinitive in its own phrase "me to speak at the assembly." "Me" maintains its direct object identity even as it serves as a subject in its own clause. Another way of looking at it might be phrased: In the world of grammatical syntax (word order), a word must hang on to its first role regardless of what other role it plays.

Nevertheless, if you get the right answer for the wrong reasons, no one seems to mind on the SAT. It still makes you eligible for the world of higher education.

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