I is prestigious : a feasibility study of hypercorrection in the accusative case in American English

Abstract

Hypercorrection is an overgeneralization of a prestige semantic structure (Piatelli, 2004). In this study on the feasibility of the study of hypercorrection in English, I discuss the implications of hypercorrection of first-person pronouns within noun pairs, such as “Bill and me,” versus “Bill and I,” in terminal and medial positions. Results show that speakers hypercorrect to an extent which is significant to draw some conclusions and warrant a further study, as well as showing that age appears to have a significant effect on the frequency of hypercorrection.