who -> that [Was: Seeking a Polish female that ...]

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 7, 2007, at 1:03 PM, Larry Horn wrote:

> At 3:53 PM -0400 8/7/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>> If you're about ten years older than I am and from Lubbock, TX, "wh-
>> that" sentences are still possible. The guy sounded like a cowboy
>> extra in a '40's horse opera, eg. "... who that I was a-tellin' y'all
>> about." Since ten years older than I am would place him in his 80's,
>> there may not be many such speakers left.
>>
>> -Wilson
>
> I remember it being mentioned that there were some such exotic
> speakers still around, but I couldn't recall where.  Thanks for the
> pointer!

you were probably recalling references to

Zwicky, Arnold M.  2002.  I wonder what kind of construction that
this example illustrates.  Beaver et al. 2002:219-48.

Beaver, David I., Luis D. Casillas Martínez, Brady Z. Clark, & Stefan
Kaufmann (eds.).  2002.  The construction of meaning.  Stanford CA:
CSLI.

and to works cited therein, notably:

Seppa"nen, Aimo & Joe Trotta.  2000.  The wh- + that pattern in
present-day English.  Kirk 2000:161-75.

Kirk, John M. (ed.).  2000.  Corpora galore: Analyses and techniques
in describing English. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

but the examples i collected (and am still collecting) all have a wh-
expression of at least two words preceding the "that".  i have *no*
examples of things like "who that" in modern english (though they
were common in (much) older english).  [i exclude, of course, cases
where the "that" heads a relative modifying "who" or another wh-word:
Who that you know likes Disney movies?]

josef bayer has looked at some pretty similar phenomena in varieties
of german.

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