grammar question
 

"Which one is the X, Y or he too drunk to stand?"

Should that "he" be in the objective case, "him"? (It's a theoretical guy too drunk to stand; the speaker isn't speaking of anyone specific.) Thanks for your thoughts.

My feeling is that “he” is right here, but it’s hard to say what’s grammatical or even conversationally natural without more context.

Thanks for chiming in, Carl. What do you see as the determining factor?

I'm not sure how more context would help, but:

A coward dies a thousand deaths, said Will,
The valiant: one. So which, then, is the coward?
The one allowing terror in to kill
A thousand times, or he too overpowered
By courage to contend with death until
He has no choice?

Ok, so I should understand your sentence as “Which one is X? Is it Y or is it he who is too drunk to stand?” Strictly speaking, the answer to “Who is the coward?” is “It is he”—predicate nominative, not objective. Of course, I’d normally say “It’s him,” but the verses you cite are high-enough style that I’d find “him” jarring.

In English, as in Latin, the verb "to be" generally* takes the nominative case on both sides, because it's basically an equals sign. I see the two alternatives here as appositives (noun phrases that come after another noun phrase—their antecedent—to provide extra information about it). And appositives take the same case as their antecedents. So I'd say "he."


* Caveat: Despite the insistence of centuries of English grammarians that English behaves like Latin, England was conquered by William of Normandy's army in 1066, so occasionally French-influenced emphatic pronouns pop up after "to be." In French, the emphatic "C'est moi" is always used rather than the nominative "C'est je," and English-speakers likewise often say "It's me" rather than the hopelessly stilted "It is I." But that's irrelevant here.

I would rewrite the sentence to avoid the question. While "he" is grammatical, it sounds rather too stuffy in its correctness, but there is no simple colloquial fix that wouldn't involve disrupting the sentence around it. So disrupt away.

What Roger said. Every time I have a grammar question the work around is better.

Thanks, everyone, both for the grammar help and revision suggestions.

[Damned easy fix once I look at it. Thanks for the nudge. (The one allowing terror in to kill/That often, or the one too overpowered...)]