Contraction in comparatives

[Ed Keer]

Thanks Arnold! I was aware of your 4 and 5 examples,
but not Your and Pullum's account. I had looked at
Selkirk's account of 4 and 5, which basically said
that the sentence needed to end in a prosodic word.
But the reduction in 1 isn't sentence final. So i'm
wondering why the aux needs to bear accent in this
case.

Ed
--- "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
wrote:

> On Jun 19, 2006, at 6:34 AM, Ed Keer wrote:
>
> > I find the following pretty bad.
> >
> > 1. This pistol is as long as I'm tall.
> >
> > Especially compared to the non-contracted version.
> >
> > 2. This pistol is as long as I am tall.
> >
> > I'm not sure of my judgement in this case, so I'd
> love
> > to hear opinions.
>
> Wilson Gray reported similar judgments, and i'm with
> the two of you.
> Geoff Pullum and i have something of an account of
> this: Auxiliary
> Reduction is not possible in positions where the
> auxiliary must bear
> some accent, as it must for me (and presumably Ed
> and Wilson) in 2.
>
> > Also, are there dialects where (1)
> > is acceptable (if it's not good for others)?
>
> Jon Lighter reports that it is.  i'd predict that
> this sort of
> comparative construction doesn't require a (weak)
> accent on the
> auxiliary for him; he should be able to pronounce 2
> with a schwa (as
> well as with an ash).
>
> > I'm trying to figure out why this sentence:
> >
> > 3. I'm gonna buy me a pistol just as long as I'm
> tall.
> >
> > from the Everly Brother's version of 'T for Texas'
> > bothers me. I think it's the contraction, but I'm
> not
> > sure.
>
> certainly it's the contraction for me.
>
> in a different ellipsis construction, pretty much
> everybody requires
> some accent on the auxiliary, and the AuxRed version
> is terrible:
>
> 4.  I'm going to buy me a pistol just as long as I
> am.
> 5. *I'm going to buy me a pistol just as long as
> I'm.
>
>
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