non-constituent coordination

[Philip Neal Whitman]

Hi, Berthold,

This sentence is the slightest bit awkward for me, but
still OK:

(1)   I gave the dog a bone, and the toy to the cat.

It's even better if the context makes the dog and the
toy especially salient; for example...

(2)   So Neal, did you give the dog that toy like
      you were planning to do?

      Me:  No, actually I changed my mind.  I gave
	   the dog a bone, and the toy to the cat.

However, it's not so good when the conjuncts are reversed,
as Ash noted.


Now here's what I *really* can't get:

(3) *I gave the dog a bone and to Kim.


Interestingly, this contrast is not as striking in the
following pair:

(4)  a.  ?We loaded the crates with oranges and onto the truck.
     b.  ?We loaded the crates with oranges and
	           the melons onto the truck.


As Carl noted earlier, I'm working a lot with these and
several other valence alternations in my dissertation
(specifically Chapter 4); the internet data Carl refers
to is actually for Chapter 3, where I discuss interrogatives
such as:

(5)  Learn to control what and when you eat.


If you're interested, I can send you a draft of the relevant
chapter(s); otherwise, look for _The Reality of Neutrality_
sometime in the near future.

Best,

Neal