Everybody learns in school that in conventional spoken English one uses "objective" forms of personal pronouns (me, us, him, her, them) for "predicate nominatives" where some conventional formal rules call of the "subjective" forms (I, we, he, she, they). Thus "It's me." rather than "It is I." But I only just noticed that there is another context in which even writers who are fastidious about formal rules use the objective forms where the rules seem to suggest the subjective should be used. Thus (quoting from a novel):
"What would you have done, sir?"
"Me? How can I answer that?"
One wouldn't say "Me would have done thus-and-so." but "I would have done thus-and-so." Yet one says "me" rather than "I" in sentences like that quoted above. So what do grammar books say about this and how does one explain it to foreigners learning English?
PS: It is being objected that this is like another question where someone asks why "Not me." rather than "Not I." is used in reply to "Who wants ice cream?". However, I think there are syntactic differences here.
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