No subject
Ileana Paul
ipaul at videotron.ca
Sat Oct 20 13:44:21 UTC 2001
I believe that this is an inappropriate response. This
list is for asking and answering questions. Not for
making pedantic points. If one wishes the person asking
a question to know that he or she is using
nonstandard terminology, one should write to that
person, not to the list.
--
>
> I think it should be emphasized that the query
> repeated below uses the
> question of what NPs can be relativized in a
> nonstandard sense. Normally,
> when linguists talk about what NPs can be
> relativized or what grammatical
> roles the head of a relative clause can have in a
> language, they are
> referring to the grammatical role of the head in the
> RELATIVE clause, not
> in the MAIN clause. In all three examples cited by
> Whitney Postman in her
> message, repeated here, the head of the relative
> clause is functioning as
> the subject in the relative clause (though they have
> different functions
> in the main clause):
>
> (1) The woman [who is singing a lullaby] is holding
> a baby.
> (2) The woman is holding a baby [who is sleeping].
> (3) The baby is held by the woman [who is singing a
> lullaby].
>
> These contrast with examples like (4) to (6), where
> the heads differ as to
> their role in the relative clause:
>
> (4) The woman [who is singing a lullaby] is holding
> a baby.
> (5) The baby [that the woman is holding] is
> sleeping.
> (6) The woman [that the baby is being held by] is
> singing.
>
> Grammatical restrictions on what role the head can
> have in the main clause
> are much less common than restrictions on what role
> the head can have in
> the relative clause.
>
> Matthew Dryer
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