[Ads-l] question order in embedded question

[Wilson Gray]

You and I may be the only speakers of AmE who care about this, anymore(😜),
Benjamin.
Back in the '50's, Labov noted this structure as a feature of BE, the
standard structure being not,
a.“Democrats are trying to figure out _who is_ the candidate that can play
on Trump’s terrain, which is different from any terrain we’ve ever seen in
modern politics,”
but
b.“Democrats are trying to figure out _who_ the candidate _is_ that can
play on Trump’s terrain, which is different from any terrain we’ve ever
seen in modern politics,”
or even
c.“Democrats are trying to figure out _who_ the candidate that can play on
Trump’s terrain, which is different from any terrain we’ve ever seen in
modern politics, _is_.”

What are you going to do? As Beowulf is said to have observed, "There's no
stopping language change."

On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 10:25 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I think this topic has been covered here before. The Washington Post has a
> nice example today:
>
> ‘More united’ vs. ‘A house divided’: GOP goes all in on Trump while
> Democrats clash over ideology and tactics
> by By Toluse Olorunnipa and Rachael Bade
>
> ****
> For both parties, Trump is the main driver of the disruption, said Amy
> Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report.
>
> “Democrats are trying to figure out who is the candidate that can play on
> Trump’s terrain, which is different from any terrain we’ve ever seen in
> modern politics,” she said.
> ####
> ####
>
> I don’t see intonation making this sound right.
>
> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org