Friday, June 21, 2013

grammaticality - Since the rules do not forbid “I brought him him”, can I therefore say it that way?

I’ve searched about direct and indirect objects, and all explanations have led me to think that I could say this:




  • ?I brought him him.




Is that allowed? I think it should be, since the rules governing direct and indirect objects’ inversion apply only to the pronouns it and them, and then only if the indirect objects are nouns, not if they’re pronouns.



So, what do you think? Because the rules say nothing against it, would it therefore be right to say the first version, not just the second?




  1. ?I brought him him.

  2. I brought him to him.



(from comments)




After all, we have the grammatical examples of:




  1. Give me it.

  2. Bring me it.



Although I don’t understand why those are ok but





  1. *Do me it.



is wrong.

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