Re: USAGE: Garden paths

J Matthew Pearson wrote:

> Compare:
>
>   He filed the papers without reading them.
>   Which papers did he file __ without reading __ ?
>
> I'm not so fond of parasitic gaps in questions, but I think they're
> just fine in relative clauses:
>
>   I need to see the papers [which he filed __ without reading __]
Perhaps your intuition is because

1)      Which papers did he file without reading them?

seems less ungrammatical (as it were) than

2)      I need to see the papers which he filed without reading them.

The "them" in 2 seems clearly an ungrammatical resumptive pronoun, whereas
the "them" in 1 seems merely pleonastic.

--

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