Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 17:39:15 -0500
From: "Dennis R. Preston" preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU
Subject: Re: Don Nelson puts behind
Bob,
Can't buy it. Clause-mates ought to trigger reflexives.
For example, in 'John moved the skunk away from himself,' the skunk is the
target of the moving (not John), and 'him' would not be coreferential.
I still find it odd and still think that the metaphoric sense is related to
the variation.
Compare
John put the skunk behind himself
with
John put the argument behind him.
I can't reverse the pronouns (and still keep the coreferential).
Dennis
On Fri, 17 Nov 1995, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
How about the other funny business in this sentence? Since the 'him' (in 1
above, a completely grammatical sentence) is a clause-mate to 'Nelson,' why
isn't it reflexive? *Nelson put this chapter behind himself. Could this odd
fact have anything to do with the fact that the locative is predicted by
'put' but here has an obligatory temporal metaphoric reading?
Dennis,
It's not reflexive because the action is not directed toward Nelson,
himself. Rather the action is directed and focused upon the "chapter".
So, in that regard, the sentence seems to be correct. Still, it does
read a little weird, but I wonder if I see as such due to Beth's initial
post. Did she taint my perception of what may simply be a strange
sounding sentence?
Jus' wondrin'
Bob Haas
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
rahaas[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]hamlet.uncg.edu