clausal possessives

[Natalie Maynor]

I might have mentioned before the wonderful answer I got on a
sophomore quiz one time.  I often give pop quizzes of ten easy
questions to keep the students reading in English Lit Survey,
and this one was on "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."  The
question I asked was something like "Who did the Green Knight
turn out to be?"  The answer was "the lady whom tried to seduce
hims husband."  Although I don't think that student ended up
passing the course (she had a bit of a writing problem :-), I
do think I counted that quiz answer as correct, giving her the
benefit of the doubt on the antecedent of "him." I told them
that if they couldn't remember a character's name to identify
the character in some other way.  She did.  What better way to
identify Sir Bircilak than as "the lady who tried to seduce
Gawain's husband"?
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)