Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 08:19:37 -0700 From: Allen Maberry Subject: Re: acceptability/grammaticality judgments, please -Reply 1. seems normal. 2. seems odd. I understand 2. to imply that someone said who ate the cake, the question is: Who does she think said it? I read it as: Who does she THINK said ate the cake? As if she could well imagine who said it. Allen maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu On Fri, 22 Sep 1995, Molly Dickmeyer wrote: > Bob: > > As an editor, if I ran across these sentences I would edit thusly: > > 1. Kim and Dale think that each other is the best. > > Note that two meanings could be derived from the above: > Kim and Dale each think that the other is the best. > Kim and Dale like each other. > > But of course, written English is not spoken English. In > conversation, I would find this acceptable and inflection would > indicate which meaning was meant. > > 2. Who does she think said ate the cake? > > This one is harder for me to understand. Perhaps: > Who does she think said "ate the cake"? > > Or is there an understood "you" here? > Who does she think that you said ate the cake? > (still not sparkling prose, but...) > > If there's another meaning I'm not getting, please do explain. > > > Molly D. > dickmeye[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]phl.lrpub.com >