I suspect that this subject has been addressed already, but I've been unable to find this specific issue with the search terms I've used.
My concern is the assignment of accusative (or objective, if you prefer) case to "X and Y" when X and Y are direct objects and at least one is a pronoun.
For example: "He invited my wife and me to dinner" vs. "He invited my wife and I to dinner."
For me personally, the choice is obvious; I could no more say "He invited my wife and I to dinner" than I could say "He invited I to dinner." Yet, I find increasingly that I am in the minority on this question.
It seems to come down to this: for some speakers, the phrase "X and Y" is transparent to case and each nominal element is case-marked. For others, the phrase is opaque to case, or perhaps better, the entire phrase is zero-marked for case, leaving the nominative pronoun uninflected.
The problem becomes more acute if both X and Y are pronouns. I don't recall hearing any examples recently, but such instincts as I have suggest that the likeliest result for the zero-marked camp would be "He invited her and I..." rather than "He invited she and I..." which then raises the question of how case is being marked on one, but not both terms (I would, of course, say "her and me").
I formerly thought that the zero-marked usage was of quite recent origin (and I suspect that it is, at least, becoming more widespread) but I have heard recordings of it being used at least as far back as the 1950s. I leave open the question of whether it is more a North American phenomenon than British.
I welcome any insights from others.
