Grammarians have for years condemned as ungrammatical the English phrase "between you and I, " insisting that the correct phrasing is "between you and me," with the objective case after a preposition. Such condemnations, however, are obviously unfounded, because Shakespeare himself, in The Merchant of Venice, wrote, "All debts are cleared between you and I."
Conclusion: Such condemnations, however, are obviously unfounded
reasoning: Shakespeare himself, in The Merchant of Venice, wrote, "All debts are cleared between you and I."
underlying assumption: Shakespeare always uses grammatically correct English phrases!therefore we must weaken the underlying assumption, any answer option that proves that Shakespeare may not be correct always will weaken the argument
(A) In his plays, Shakespeare intentionally had some of his characters use phrases he considered ungrammatical.
this option exactly matches our reasoning/assumption!! sometimes Shakespeare is ungrammatical-- he is not always correct!
(B) The phrase "between you and I" appears infrequently in Shakespeare's writings.
even it it appears once or 100 times doesn't prove Shakespeares proficiency with the english language.
(C) The more modem an English word or phrase, the less likely that modern grammarians will consider it acceptable for formal usage.
what modern grammarians accept or don't accept is irrelevant to the argument as we are concerned only with Shakespeare's use of the phrase "between you and I".
(D) Many modem speakers of English sometimes say "between you and I" and sometimes say "between you and me."
just because modem speakers use a phrase a certain way doesn't mean it influences the reasoning behind Shakespeare using the phrase. modem speakers are out of scope
(E) Most native speakers of English who choose to say "between you and I" do so because they know that Shakespeare used that phrase.
Just because native speakers follow Shakespeare doesn't prove that Shakespeare is always correct.
therefore option A is the correct answer _________________
Persistence and determination alone are all-powerful ~ :)