my your recommendation

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Thursday, September 27, 2001 12:58 pm +0000 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

>
> 1. Can one convey the notion 'the recommendation that I wrote on your
> behalf' by saying "my your recommendation'?

No.

> 2. If not, why not?

Because 'my' and 'your' are determiners, and there's only one determiner
slot in at the front of a noun phrase.  Same reason you can't say 'the your
recommendation' or 'your that recommendation'.

The only way you could do that is by reinterpreting 'your' as an adjective,
but since it's still reflecting the argument structure that it would
reflect when it was a determiner, there's nothing particularly adjective-y
about this use, and so it's downright bad to my ear.

Lynne


M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320