Re: It's vs. it is

Andreas Johansson wrote:
>Your twist, of course applies to the 3rd sg. "I'm leaving for Rome on
>Saturday" won't easily be confused with "My leaving for Rome on Saturday".
Quite so.  And if you substitute a real noun for the gerund, it's even
clearer:  Andrea's departure...., my departure....

>Hm, what about this?
>
>Andrea's leaving for Rome on Saturday, and I'm on Sunday.
No no no.  Marginally better:  .........., and I on Sunday.  But still a
little awkward.
A non-native intuition:  Spanish: Andrea sale para Roma el sábado, y yo el
domingo is OK I think.  Even Andrea _está saliendo_...., y yo el domingo is
also OK?? Of course, no contraction to screw things up.

>Now, try this:
>
>Andrea's leaving for Rome on Saturday and my on Sunday will be good for our
>careers.
Change "my" to "mine" and it goes from *-status to quite acceptable.

Of course, "Andrea's leaving" as a NP ultimately derives from "Andrea is
leaving", just as "Andrea's leaving" (as a S) does.  In some mysterious
Chomskyan or McCawleyan way-- I have to confess, my eyes glazed over at this
point in the lectures.  The other thing is, "Andrea's leaving..." NP will
have a different intonation/stress pattern than "Andrea's leaving..." S.