Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 09:22:41 CDT

From: "Donald M. Lance" ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU

Subject: Re: acceptability/grammaticality judgments, please



I doubt that anyone would interpret "Kim and Dale think each other is best"

saying that Kim thinks Dale is best and Dale thinks Kim is best. The

word 'other' accomplishes that meaning. The meaning that Stephen Straight

thought I might have had in mind would derive from "Kim and Dale think

each is best." (Or substitute the word 'better' to please old-fashioned

English teachers, a matter that is totally irrelevant to the discussion at

hand.) I doubt that anyone would not understand reciprocality in 'each

other'.



Import the "singular they" into the sentence and see the result:

Kim and Dale think they're best. / Kim and Dale think they're better than the

other. / Kim and Dale each think they're best / better. Ambiguity galore.DML