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

From:Eric Christopherson <raccoon@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 22, 1999, 19:02
----- 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."