[Ads-l] Another weird construction

[Laurence Horn]

Another motivation in this case might be to avoid having to employ singular agreement in “If you’re someone who was sitting at home...”, where the alternative plural agreement “If you’re someone who were sitting at home...” is even worse.  I suggest that Barrow wouldn’t have invoked the same resumptive pronoun strategy in “If he’s someone who (*he) was sitting at home…”    

I seem to recall that French speakers are partially motivated to use the resumptive pronoun strategy to bypass agreement problems:  “Toi et moi, nous allons…” or “Toi et moi, on va…” rather than #Toi et moi allons…”

LH
 
> On Jan 29, 2021, at 7:29 AM, Herbert F. Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Not all that unusual.  The use of resumptive pronouns for emphasis instead of deleting is pretty common, at least in speech.
> 
> On January 29, 2021, at 6:49 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Probably not "new" but very bizarre:
> 
> Josh Barrow, columnist for _Business Insider_, on MSNBC's _Morning Joe_:
> 
> "So if you're someone who you were sitting at home, you were receiving your
> salary, you had extra money [etc.]."
> 
> "Who you were" for "who was."
> 
> JL
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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