Is it "me sitting at a table" or "I sitting at a table"?

Question

The sentence is

I can recall vivid images of my first atlas; I sitting at a table, finding all countries and their capitals on the atlas, and jotting them down on a paper.

This is the first line of a paragraph, and the atlas hasn't been mentioned before this line. I feel that this sentence doesn't sound right, and it seems to have an error after the semi-colon. How can I correct this sentence?

Try these: "... me sitting at ...", or "... atlas: sitting ...". — Lawrence, Nov 23 '15 at 11:51
indo, I changed the title of the question. I think this question is interesting and will attract more attention to it, now. — michael_timofeev, Nov 23 '15 at 14:29

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

It should read:

I can recall vivid images of my first atlas; me, sitting at a table, finding all countries and their capitals on the atlas, and jotting them down on a paper.

'Me' is, as per the OED:

The objective case of the first person pronoun I, reproducing the Old English accusative and dative.

The important part is sense 5h:

For the subjective pronoun I. (h: Introducing a sentence or clause with a participle.)

Where the pronoun 'me' introduces the following clause. A relevant example provided is the 1950 one which I have included in the quotation. I'm sure you can see the similarity.

1950 J. Hersey Peggety's Parcel of Shortcomings in Fling (1990) 22

"Me, sitting there, taking up half the back seat of the car."

The semicolon here is used either instead of a conjunction, or to link two independent, closely related sentences, and it may make more sense to you if I remove the semicolon and replace it with a conjunction. e.g:

I can recall vivid images of my first atlas with me, sitting at a table, finding all countries and their capitals on the atlas, and jotting them down on a paper.

or,

I can recall vivid images of my first atlas. Me, sitting at a table, finding all countries and their capitals on the atlas, and jotting them down on a paper.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 23 '15 at 11:54

0

There should be a 'was' before 'sitting'. And 'the' bofore 'atlas' seems right to me, but I cannot support this with an evidence.

answered Nov 23 '15 at 11:54

user148674

1

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

0

How about:

I can recall vivid images of my first atlas. I remember sitting at a table, finding all countries and their capitals in the atlas, and jotting them down on a paper.

(See also here.)

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Community

1

answered Nov 23 '15 at 14:39

WBT

3,544

Is it "me sitting at a table" or "I sitting at a table"?

3 Answers3