Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 16:25:27 GMT+1200

From: Tim Behrend ASI_BEH[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCNOV2.AUCKLAND.AC.NZ

Subject: Re: which I didn't even see it coming



My impression for the past 20 years has been that the sort of

free-floating relative clauses mentioned by George Halliday and DM

Lance today are characteristic of working class urban dialects from

the Midwest -- Chicago and Cleveland, for example. They are also

prominent, as I recall, in the idiosyncratic linguistic stylings of

Damon Runyon, which it's been many years since I read any of his

stories. I think of them as verbal footnotes clarifying or adding

detail to an idea halfway through its utterance.



Tim Behrend

Department of Asian Languages

University of Auckland