Relative clauses -- TOPIC or FOCUS?

[Dick Hudson]

Joan:
>  Who is there being interviewed? (Question ok with existential.)
>  #Someone who there is being interviewed... (Relative not ok with
>      existential.)
But in general we can relativize the demoted subject of an existential,
can't we?
(1)  Everything that there was in the garden was beautiful.
(2)  There wasn't much in his house, but what there was [free relative, not
interrogative], was tasteful.
(3)  All the students that there used to be in the house next door have
gone away.
Presumably the discourse function of the demoted subject is the same in all
existentials, so if they're focus  in Joan's example they should be focus
in mine too; and yet relativization seems ok in mine. Maybe there's some
other reason for the badness of Joan's example; but notice that whatever
other reason there may be [!!] must be a good one.

Dick

Richard (= Dick) Hudson

Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London,
Gower Street, London WC1E  6BT.
+44(0)20 7419 3152; fax +44(0)20 7383 4108;
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm