Given 3 choices, "me", "myself", and "I", what is the most proper word
to fill in the blank below?

"No one but _____ could have managed to do such a thing."

Include an explanatory breakdown,
 stating any applicable rules and/or exceptions.

Hello cjmorley,

I recall from my schooldays a short rule,
which helps one to remember the functions
of parts of a sentence:

'The subject verbs the object'

Correlating with the following
convention, sourced from 
The Technical Communicators Resource Site:

Writing Styleguide:
http://www.techcommunicators.com/stylegui/style-m.html

"Use the pronoun 'I' as a subject,
Use 'me' as an object; use 'myself'
when the person receiving the action
is the same as the person doing the action."

your example should read:

"No one but I could have managed to do such a thing."

"No one but [the subject]
could have managed [to verb] such an [object]"


Search Strategy:

Searchterm used in Google search engine:
"me, myself and I" when use
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22me%2C+myself+and+I%22+when+use


I trust this answers your question. If you require further
information,
please, do not hesitate to ask me for clarification before rating
my research.

Best regards,

gan.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by cjmorley-ga on 22 Nov 2002 11:00 PST

Your research has aptly jogged my memory,
but I disagree with your conclusion.

Using the information
"use 'myself' when the person receiving the action 
is the same as the person doing the action",
I agree that the answer is definitely not "myself."

"No one" is the subject, though, isn't it?
The word "but" begins a prepositional phrase.
With that in mind, the fill-in-the-blank becomes
the object of a preposition, calling for "me" in this case.

Rearranging the sentence to

 "No one could have managed to do such a thing but I."

is clearly incorrect unless "but" acts as a conjunction and continues
the sentence like so:

 "No one could have managed to do such a thing, but I don't care."

:)

I guess no one could have managed to do such a thing but me.

---

Clarification of Answer by gan-ga on 22 Nov 2002 11:32 PST

Hello again cjmorley,

I'm glad the information I found was
able to help refresh your mind.

Following through your logic, I
would agree that 'no one but me' should
be used in this case!

You may of course request a refund if
you are dissatisfied with the information
given.

Best regards,

gan.

The research good, but thoughtful analysis of the data provided
led to a different conclusion than the one give.
I trust the gan agrees with my rebuttal and final conclusion.

I would use 'no one but me' rather than 'no one but I'. If 'but' is
considered a preposition rather than a conjunction, it is followed by
the object rather than the subject. According to The American
HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language (4th Edition, 2000):

"<but> is best considered as a preposition [in this sense] and
followed by accusative forms such as <me> and <them> in all positions:
<No one but me has read it. No one has read it but me.>"

Full details at 

http://www.bartleby.com/61/71/B0577100.html

(scroll down to the Usage Note)

Google search strategy:

"No one but I"

Kind regards

blackbird-ga

Blackbird,

Thanks for backing me up on this one.
I don't know what I would do without you, but talk to myself!

Take care,
-Chris.

Rating should read:

The research good, but thoughtful analysis of the data provided
led to a different conclusion than the one given.
I trust that gan agrees with my rebuttal and final conclusion.

I can't even type.

Dear Cjmorley,

It's perhaps worth mentioning that the (mis)use of "myself" in
situations like this is often an attempt to avoid the decision between
"I" and "me".  So it's helpful to note that "myself" has only two
correct uses: reflexive and intensive.

Your own expression (in your comment to Blackbird) "... but talk to
myself!" is a good example of the (correct) reflexive use.  The "to"
here is a preposition and requires the objective case, so one might
expect "... but talk to me!".  But this is not good English, of
course: when the pronoun refers back to the subject of the sentence,
the reflexive form is required.

The other use is typified by how you answer if someone asks you who
makes your clothes.  In spoken language, it would suffice to say "I
make them."  The stress on the word "I" would make the meaning clear. 
But in written language, the reply may look like "I _make_ them" and
may be initially confusing.  So here we write (or say) "I make them
myself", to stress that - contrary to the apparent assumption on the
part of the questioner - no one else makes them, but you do.

Any other use of the reflexive pronoun is probably an attempt to avoid
facing up to the choice between the two forms of the ordinary pronoun.

I agree that your sentence should read "No one but me ...".

Carnegie