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Re: Requesting some challenging sentences

From:Jonathan Knibb <j_knibb@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 25, 2005, 17:58
Gary,

fascinating grammar! Would love to see where you go with this.

I have one comment and three suggestions. The comment: if I understand
correctly, only two word classes are distinguished by the basic syntax,
namely S/A positions (interchangeable) and O positions. Why distinguish more
word classes on a lexical level?

Suggestions:

(1) You give the example "I am running." for handling progressive aspect,
which involves a lexical change in the copula and a shift of the 'verb' to A
position. How do you handle this when the verb is transitive -- for example,
"I am eating an apple."?

(2) "The green light has turned red." -- i.e., referring to the same entity
at two different time points in the same sentence. (And for bonus marks:
"The idea we suggested was later rejected.")

(3) "X if Y."

Hope this is of interest,
Jonathan.

Replies

Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>