Timeline for In which clause does 'How' of "How do you think I feel" belong?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 21, 2023 at 15:17 | comment | added | John Lawler | @JK2 As I said, that's only an issue for some people. You speak your language and you make your choices. And I've pointed you to resources if you want to learn more, so I will follow the directions and avoid lengthy discussion here. | |
| Feb 21, 2023 at 6:26 | comment | added | JK2 | @JohnLawler Re *How do you think that I feel?, is this also ungrammatical? How do you think that governments should address abortion, if at all? nytimes.com/2021/09/30/learning/… | |
| Feb 21, 2023 at 1:41 | comment | added | John Lawler | @JK2 Probably not. His answer was that such long-distance rules have limits and can't cross certain structural boundaries, which he called "islands". But this was in a generative derivational theory, where one structure is related to another by generative rules, like these movement rules. If you don't want the rules, you don't get the solution. | |
| Feb 20, 2023 at 23:02 | comment | added | JK2 | @JohnLawler If he came up with an answer, could you tell me what that answer is? | |
| Feb 20, 2023 at 16:49 | comment | added | John Lawler | This is the problem Ross worked on in his dissertation. Note, incidentally, that inclusion of the complementizer renders the sentence ungrammatical (*How do you think that I feel?) for many speakers. That's because a that-complement is an island for them, but not without the that. | |
| Feb 20, 2023 at 4:43 | comment | added | JK2 | That's what I thought, initially. I understand how how is part of the subordinate clause in You think that I feel [how] because it resides after the clause boundary right before that. What I don't understand is how How is still part of the subordinate clause even after it's fronted. I think you agree that do you think is higher than that I feel. Now, if How were to be at the same level as that I feel, I think it should be below do you think somehow, and therefore that there should be a clause boundary right after How. But I can't seem to argue that there is one. | |
| Feb 20, 2023 at 3:55 | history | answered | Tinfoil Hat | CC BY-SA 4.0 |