Re: It's vs. it is

David Peterson wrote:>
>In a message dated 4/16/01 6:13:50 PM, pearson@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU writes:
>
><< What do you mean by "subject position"?  "Is" is not--and cannot be--a
>subject.
>
>If what you mean is that "is" can be contracted when it follows a subject,
>then
>your rule doesn't work:  In the sentence "I don't know what it is", "it" is
>the
>subject of the embedded clause. >>
>
>Well, your first point is pretty obvious, and might've gone withouts
>stating.
>  All the same, I thank you for pointing out my shocking inattention to
>detail.  I should be ashamed of myself.  Anyway, as for the second, I defy
>you to come up with another example that doesn't contain a question word.
>"I
>don't know that it is"?  There are a few.  But there is a rule that would
>explain this phenomena completely, though it disregards any sort of
>Chomskyian structure or any sort of grammar rule.  That is rule is: You can
>only elide the conjugated form of the verb "to be" (or "to have") with the
>previous noun if something follows it.  I think (haven't thought through it
>too hard) that this rule takes care of everything.  Can anyone think up any
>counterexamples?
I've heard people screaming

"IT'S NOT!"
"IT'S!"
"IT'S NOT!"
"IT'S!"

at eachother, but that perhaps doesn't count ...

                                                      Andreas
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