Missing PREP - redux

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Wed Apr 9 18:22:47 UTC 2008


On Apr 9, 2008, at 6:48 AM, Damien Hall wrote:

> I post, with permission, the edited/annotated transcript of an
> exchange with a
> colleague last night.  He had sent around an accommodation-available
> listing
> ending with the following:
>
> (1) Please forward to anyone you think who might be interested.

here are three more:

Nov 7, 2007 ... Please pass this onto anyone you think who would be
interested in seeing it, anyone you think may benefit from seeing it
and/or anyone who ...
www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/forums/read.php?3,110539,110539,quote=1

Do not hesitate to bounce this message to anyone you think who can help.
groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Google-Ride-Finder/browse_thread/
thread/d700fb3454b08690

Is there anyone you think who could do a better job than those two
clowns?? This is kinda sad but I do miss Joan Rivers, as outlandish as
she may have been! ...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/02/14/DI2008021401586_pf.html

and with "someone":

Mar 6, 2006 ... And what about you, what if someone you think who has
these turns out different with time". Well, that something to think
about. ...
vazutheterrible.blogspot.com/2006/03/values-and-traits-i-look-for.html

... you might try to contact me through someone you think who could
know, if not me, then someone who might know someone who might (etc
etc etc) know me. ...
www.srl.utu.fi/~timolai/email.html

Feb 13, 2008 ... Feel free to give it to someone you think who is in
real need...like our senior citizens. They might be able to get some
medication they ...
www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080213_1__WASHI54834

these have the feel, to me, of a constructional combination -- a main
construction
   to anyone who might be interested (1)
with the softening "you think" (much like a parenthetical in its
semantics) of
   to anyone (who) you think might be interested (2).
so the original
   to anyone you think who might be interested
is much like
   to anyone, you think, who might be interested
(though the parenthetical is more comfortable inside the subordinate
clause).

arnold

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