Re: Grammar-holes: secondary predication

On 7/16/07, Douglas Koller <laokou@...> wrote:
> I'm not sure that a language not having a structure that another does is
> necessarily a "hole." Besides
>
> > >"We spent all night talking about I can't remember what."
> > >"She bought I lost count how many kinds of cheese."
>                                                  ^
>                                 (I'd put  "of"  here)
>
> are, for me, akin to "I ran into a man that I don't remember his name." They're
> out there, they're understandable, which I guess makes them grammatical on a
> descriptive level, but whether as a matter of style or prescriptiveness, they
> still make me cringe.
What about "I just met the woman who Tom is the son of Bill and" / "I
just met the woman who Tom is the son of Bill and her", for even more
grammatical weirdness?

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

Replies