[Ads-l] Personal pronouns modified with relative clauses

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Jun 6 14:38:42 UTC 2023


Waxing religious again, we have--depending on the translation--


“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
(John 8:7)

And on a more mundane note, there's always "He who hesitates is lost".

But these (well, not the one from the Lord's Prayer) are all *restrictive*
relative clauses, while Trump's ("me, who did nothing wrong") was a
non-restrictive (appositive) relative. Is that why it might seem odd?

LH

On Tue, Jun 6, 2023 at 1:59 AM Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
wrote:

> My memory is that Japanese pronouns have a few
> additional characteristics that make them non-
> prototypical. They can be used in place of proper names:
> anata ‘you’ can be used to call someone, for example.
>
> Also, there’s the Rodin sculpture:
> https://tinyurl.com/5fympy4f
>
> Geoff
>
>
> Geoffrey S. Nathan
> WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
> Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
> https://clasprofiles.wayne.edu/profile/an6993
> geoffnathan at wayne.edu
>
> From: Barretts Mail<mailto:mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Monday, June 5, 2023 12:10 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Personal pronouns modified with relative clauses
>
> [EXTERNAL]
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> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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> Subject:      Personal pronouns modified with relative clauses
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My recollection is that one of the reasons some people doubt that =
> Japanese =E2=80=9Cpronouns=E2=80=9D are actually pronouns is that they =
> can take relative clauses, and that in languages like English, they =
> cannot. To invent an example in both languages:
>
>
> =E3=82=B9=E3=83=BC=E3=83=91=E3=81=AB=E3=81=84=E3=81=9F=E5=83=95=E3=82=92=E8=
> =A6=8B=E3=81=9F=E3=80=82(suupa-ni ita boku-wo mita)
> * (somebody) saw me who was in the grocery store.
>
> Today I saw an article in which former President Donald Trump violates =
> this rule. Here is that article and another quote. Is this idiolect or =
> dialect?
>
> =
> https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-asks-can-doj-charge-la=
> wyers-meet-feds-rcna87770
> <https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-asks-can-doj-charge-la=wyers-meet-feds-rcna87770>
> Dareh Gregorian
> 5 Jun 2023
> ###
> "How can DOJ possibly charge me, who did nothing wrong, when no other =
> president's were charged," Trump wrote on Truth Social in an all-caps =
> post.
> ###
>
> =
> https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/donald-trump-press-conference-anal=
> ysis/index.html
> <https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/donald-trump-press-conference-anal=ysis/index.html>
> Chris Cillizza
> 26 Sep 2018
> ###
> =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99ve been accused =E2=80=A6 by four or five women, who =
> got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me who made a lot of =
> money,=E2=80=9D Trump said.=20
> ###
>
> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
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>
>
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