Re: THEORY: Re : THEORY: Natural language change (was Re: Charlie and I)

----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas R. Wier <artabanos@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 5:17 PM
Subject: Re: Re : THEORY: Natural language change (was Re: Charlie and I)


> Charles wrote:
>
> > "the guy who i usedta date his sister comma is angry now"
> >          ^^^ ............. ^^^ ...... ^^^^^
> >
> > This is illegal in American, we use something more complicated.
>
> No, it's actually probably quite common in colloquial American
> English. But the more common way of fixing that problem is to
> use the "genitive" cliticized suffix attached to the end of the noun
> phrase:
>
> "The guy who(m) I used to date's sister is angry now".
I also interpret this as "The sister of the guy who I used to date is angry
now" -- I would render the original sentence as "The guy whose sister I used
to date is angry now."