29.1084, Disc: Omission of 'that' in Annex Clauses of Existentials

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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-1084. Thu Mar 08 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.1084, Disc: Omission of 'that' in Annex Clauses of Existentials

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Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2018 18:11:19
From: Stanford Carmack [sa at carmack.cc]
Subject: Omission of 'that' in Annex Clauses of Existentials

 
I have tried to find a discussion of the future-tense analog of omission of
''that'' in annex clauses of existential sentences (Quirk et al. 1985: 1407
§18.48) — sentences of the type ''there's a man [ø] lives in China'' (Quirk et
al.) or ''there was no runner today [ø] could catch her''.

Of interest are the following examples with bare infinitives:

before 1647, Jeremiah Burroughs [EEBO A30576 (1675)]
  there shall be some good [ø] come unto the family
1654, John Sheffield [EEBO A59622]
  there shall be no feeble saint [ø] go to heaven
1824, William Cobbett, Political Register
  there will be no act [ø] come out of this thing

Omission of ''to'' is possible but perhaps somewhat less likely, given that
the following seems unacceptable (adapted from Quirk et al. 1985):

There will always be some housework to do.
*There will always be some housework do.

However, intransitive verbs, as above, seem more acceptable:

There will probably be someone to go.
??There will probably be someone go.

So, how to determine whether the omission in the above examples is a relative
and a future auxiliary or a ''to''?

there shall be some good ( that shall | to ) come unto the family
there shall be no feeble saint ( that/who shall | to ) go to heaven
there will be no act ( that/who will | to ) come out of this thing

Any further attestations appreciated (and any discussion), showing these
future-tense analogs to be persistent usage.



Linguistic Field(s): Syntax

Subject Language(s): English (eng)



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