Re: USAGE: Garden paths

On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, J Matthew Pearson wrote:

> Hmm.  I thought about that when I made my original comment, but when it came down to
> it I couldn't actually think of any examples of acceptable but ungrammatical
> constructions.  I suppose one example might be resumptive pronouns in relative
> clauses, which English speakers routinely turn their noses up at, but which get
> produced all the time:
>
>   "I just talked to that man who I was wondering if you've ever met him."
>   "That's the man who I just asked you why he wasn't at the party."
>
> Whether these sentences are "acceptable" or not depends on what you mean, I guess...
What about parasitic gaps?  Those frequently are barely acceptable and, but
according to some theories should be ungrammatical.  At least, Dominique
Sportiche, in his syntax course during the Spring Quarter, stated that
they are ungrammatical, but usually accepted.  The fact that they are
usually clumsy at best may be support for such a view.

Marcus