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Re: ? how would you classify this language ?

From:Garth Wallace <gwalla@...>
Date:Thursday, September 16, 2004, 23:03
David Peterson wrote:

> gwalla@DESPAMMED.COM wrote: > > <<AIUI, that's SVO in both clauses. The relative pronoun is considered > part of the main clause, while the relative clause has a "gap": in > English, the argument that corresponds to the relative pronoun is left out. > > full sentence: That is what (I want). > > main clause: That is what > S V O > > relative clause: I want [...] > S V (O)>> > > No. The whole reason that they proposed gaps and movement was that > their syntax didn't match up with the extent word order. So when they > talk about "word order", they mean surface word order--otherwise all > languages would have the same word order (at least, according to some > linguists). And technically, there's another gap in this sentence--the WH- > word has to move "covertly" to be in proper position. (Or is that the > empty operator...? Geez, I've forgotten my old school syntax already..)
Who are "they?". I thought it worked like that because it meant you had to do less fiddling around to compare languages with and without resumptive pronouns.