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Which of the following is correct?

It stands in the way of my being successful.

It stands in the way of me being successful.

This led to his succeeding in the workplace.

This led to him succeeding in the workplace.

BillJ
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gene b.
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    They are both correct, the genitive construction ("my/his") being more formal. – BillJ Jan 21 '21 at 14:30
  • I was always taught that the me/him construction was incorrect because you cannot also write "Me was successful" or "Him succeeded in the workplace." Using the genitive construction of my/his agrees with the gerund forms "being" and "succeeding" since they function as nouns. – RobJarvis Jan 21 '21 at 14:35
  • Well, of course you can't write Me is successful. That's a tensed clause, not an infinitive. Tensed clauses must have subjects, and they must be nominative. But that's the only use for nominative -- subject of a tensed clause. The subject of an infinitive (which is untensed -- that's what infinitive means) is objective (object of for in the for..to complementizer), and the subject of an -ing clause (either gerund or participle, also untensed) can be either objective (the Acc-ing complementizer) or genitive (the Poss-ing complementizer). But never nominative. – John Lawler Jan 21 '21 at 15:25
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    The point is that these are non-finite clauses functioning as complements, not finite clauses. The only exception with gerund-participials is where the clause is functioning not as a complement but as an adjunct, as in" She sought advice from Ed, [he/him being the most experienced of her colleagues]". Here, the pronoun subject can be nominative of accusative. – BillJ Jan 21 '21 at 15:40
  • @Billj Interesting construction. I would find any pronoun ungrammatical with that, though any personal noun is fine. I.e, *.., him/he being the most ..., but ...Ed being the most ... is OK. It feels like the extra clause is a separate assertion (hence the comma), and needs to repeat the original NP. I don't quite know why. – John Lawler Jan 21 '21 at 16:23
  • Yes, the comma marks the non-finite adjunct clause as a supplement. The pronoun has "Ed" as antecedent. Seems fine to me. – BillJ Jan 21 '21 at 17:08

1 Answers1

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It stands in the way of my being successful.

It stands in the way of me being successful.

This led to his succeeding in the workplace.

This led to him succeeding in the workplace.

These are all fine.

The personal pronoun subjects of gerund-participial clauses functioning as complement are either genitive case (here, "my/his") or accusative case (here,"me/"him)".

The choice between genitive and non-genitive depends mainly on style: the genitive is characteristic of fairly formal style.

BillJ
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