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
>