"I've a 24" 2.4Ghz iMac _that's_ hard drive recently packed in."

[Dan Goncharoff]

In your 'guy' example, since it's a person, 'whose' would be peachy.

I find it hard to believe that good writers cannot avoid messy structures. I
am not all that interested in the problems bad writers have, but that's just
me.

DanG
On Feb 19, 2011 11:07 PM, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "I've a 24" 2.4Ghz iMac _that's_ hard drive recently packed
> in."
>
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>
> At 10:07 PM -0500 2/19/11, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>>I would have thought "that's the book that
>>has a torn cover" would have been a superior choice, but it didn't make
your
>>list.
>>
> That paraphrase is possible in this case, but not necessarily in
> others. I was trying to retain the original construction as much as
> possible. So for example
>
> That's the guy whose mother you just met.
> That's the guy that's mother you just met.
> That's the guy that you just met his mother.
>
> What would be the "have" variant in this case--"That's the guy that
> has a mother you just met"? "That's the guy such that you just met
> his mother"? Of course the "whose" variant is always possible, but
> it is elevated register ant there's a gap for the colloquial
> counterpart, although sometimes local paraphrases (as in your case)
> will be available.
>
> (I made up that example, but I just googled "the guy that's" and found
>
> This is the guy that's mother was looking for him, and put an ad in a
magazine.
> the guy that's mother died was that supposed to be Forest Law or Jin
Kazama?
> The guy that's wife just died while skiing.
> He was the guy that's wife discovered his long steamy affair, whilst
> he was buried deep in the earth
> I thought the guy that's wife just had a baby the same morning was good.
>
> and also:
> Just a pathetic kid that's mother hates him
>
> and similar cases, none of which sound natural to me with the "have"
> paraphrase.)
>
> LH
>
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