Re: Multiple wh-words (was Re: LUNATIC SURVEY: 2005)

***gmail warning***

There's nothing wrong with that sentence in the English I speak.

Well, nothing except I would say "Who did who see?"

andy.


On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 18:43:23 -0500, Ph. D. <phild@...> wrote:
> Andreas wrote:
> >
> > >Quoting Thomas Wier <trwier@...>:
> >
> > >> Briefly, there seems to
> > >> be an assymetry between the kind of long-distance dependency in
> > >> multiple wh-word constructions between, such that in English you
> > >> can't say *"Whom did who see?", but in German you can say "Wen liebt
> > >> wer?"
> > >
> > >It's funny. I've never been consciously aware of that English rule
> before, and
> > >when stated like this it strikes me as entirely bizarre. Yet, I realize I
> > >actually do obey it when speaking or writing English. The twist is that
> the
> > >thought to put a such rule into a conlang would, before Thomas pointed it
> out,
> > >never have occured to me, despite me being a fluent speaker of a language
> that
> > >has it.
>
> I find nothing wrong with "Whom did who see?"  I'm sure I've
> said that question myself, with an emphasis on "who."
>
> --Ph. D.
>