🚀 go-pugleaf

(From Mark Rosenfelder.  Attribution line may be incorrect.)

connolly@memstvx1.memst.edu (Leo Connolly) writes:
>        What, me worry?  (Alfred E. Neuman)
>        Him learn Russian?  Forget it!

and scobbie@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Jim Scobbie) writes:
>A: Did he speak?  B: Him?
>A: Did he speak?  B: Him speak?
>A: Did he speak?  B: Him do what?
>A: Did he speak?  B: Him be interesting?
>A: Did he speak?  B: Him break the habits of a lifetime?

All of the examples of this construction presented so far seem to have
something in common semantically: "Pron VP" can be paraphrased 
"You expect Pron to VP?"

     What, me worry?  
     What, you expect me to worry?

     Him {learn Russian | break the habits of a lifetime}?
     You expect him to {learn Russian | break the habits of a lifetime}?

Can anyone find examples where the construction has a different meaning?
Better yet, is there any idiom for which the construction might be an
ellipsis or, dare I say it, a transformation?

Actually the subject doesn't have to be a pronoun (but of course here we
can't see what case the subject is in):

     What, an American President learn a foreign language?  Never!

(For me, at least, the "decorations" ("What...", "Never!") increase the
acceptability of the sentence.)

It also seems that the construction can only occur in the main clause:

     *Me worry is impossible.
     *I can't see him learn Russian.
     but cf.: I can't see him learning Russian.

--Mark Rosenfelder (markrose@spss.com)