answering questions

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

In English, when you use a one-word answer to a question such as "Who did this?" you would say "Me" or "him" as an answer (objective case). If someone asked "Кто это сделал?" would you answer "я" (with the corresponding "сделал/а" understood) and use the nominative?

Comments

[poluzhivago.livejournal.com]

Я

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

Actually, "Me" is improper English.

[-alex-dee-.livejournal.com]

"Who did this?" : я/не я

я сделал(а). я этого не делал(а).
я виноват(а). я не виноват(а).

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

Erm. Elaborating. "I did" is proper English, so a response to "Who did this?" should be "I [did]" or "He [did]." Same with Russian... "Кто это сделал?" "Я" or "он."

[kart.livejournal.com]

The one word answers in English are a simplifications of phrases like "I did this" or "The person who did this was me"

In a one word answer, the "the person who did this was" part gets left out. Answering "I" as a one word answer is also valid, but it sounds unusual due to infrequent usage. Compare to one word questions in Russian, where you can ask "чего?" or "что?".

Anyway, answering "мне" to "кто это делал?" would be weird. By logical extension one could create the phrase "мне делатсья", although I suspect it is pure Runglish.

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

There's a gray area around was/is... I'm pretty sure that predicate linking verbs use the subjective case, e.g. "This is he."

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

мне делатсья

it's not Runglish, it's just a thick piece of nonsense :)))

[morgenstern180.livejournal.com]

i, for one, am still of the opinion that to answer with "me" or "him" is improper, even though it's so widely used... i doubt people are thinking "the person who did this was...," i think the colloquial usage has just become corrupted by misuse. it's true however, that to answer "who did this?" with "I" sounds strange, but "I did" or "he did" doesn't. it bugs me when people say "me" in answer to such a question, because "who" is, at any rate, in the nominative case, and the answer should be also... rambling as usual, sorry....

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Oh, please, not this. *headdesk*

Using "me" as a predicate nominative in response to questions like "who broke the window?" or "who's there?" is perfectly acceptable English. Whether or not it "makes sense" is irrelevant to whether or not it's correct--language isn't always logical, as you may have noticed.

It's informal, but informal does not equal improper. It could be considered improper to use "It is I" because that's very marked, formal usage, and often inappropriate for the context.

You may want to invest in an introductory linguistics textbook.