Syntax III
Assignment 11:  Sympathy
For discussion Thursday Dec 8


Consider the following sentences:

(1)  This is a vegetable that you must peel before you eat.
(1)  My best argument was the one they dismissed without reading.
(1)  It was a documentary about animal abuse that Harvey expressed disapproval
     of without ever having seen.
(1)  Which proposals did they throw out without even telling us about?
(1)  He's the kind of gorgeous guy you want to go to bed with as soon as you meet.
(1)  Some bugs you should just squash whenever you encounter.

Study and then describe these sentences.  What is unusual about them, given
what we have come to expect?  Also think about, and discuss, ambiguities.
We will call this the "sympathy" construction.

Keep in mind the following, and similar, facts:

(1)  This is a vegetable that you must peel before you eat it.
(1)  My best argument was the one they dismissed without reading it.
(1)  It was an article about gap licensing that Harvey expressed disgust for
     without ever having read it.
(1)  Which articles did Jill file without looking at them?
(1)  He's the kind of gorgeous guy you want to go to bed with as soon as you meet
     him.
(1)  Some bugs you should just squash whenever you encounter them.

(1) *This is a vegetable that you must peel a potato before you eat.
(1) *My best argument was the one they dismissed the whole theory without
     reading.
(1) *It was an article about gap licensing that Harvey expressed disgust for
     the whole idea of generative grammar without ever having read.
(1) *Which articles did Jill file her cookbook recipes without looking at?
(1) *He's the kind of ugly guy you want to go to bed with a gorilla
     as soon as you meet.
(1) *Some bugs you should just buy a can of Raid whenever you encounter.

Almost everybody accepts sentences like those in (1) as grammatical, though
some people think they are degraded (i.e. not perfect).  Still, sentences
of this kind are found to occur naturally (see Chris Potts' collection,
which I will hand out a copy of without commenting on).  The examples in the
next section are harder to find in naturally occurring text, and are judged
ungrammatical by some speakers:

(2)  There is this guy who I am afraid that my disapproving of would cause
     my daughter to fall in love with.

(2)  Who would Harvey's admiring cause you to despise?

(2)  The only book that Chomsky's expressing interest in would cause me to
     assign as reading in my course would be Skinner's Verbal Behavior.

What is the structural difference between the (1) examples and the (2) examples?
For the rest of this problem, you can ignore that difference (and the difference
in judgments) if you want to.  I will cite sympathy examples of type 2 as
grammatical.



Now consider the following:

(3)  Who did Alex send flowers to in order to impress?
(3)  Who did Alex send flowers to in order to impress her?
(3) *Who did Alex tell that we would complain about?
(3)  Who did Alex tell that we would complain about him?
(3) *Ramon is the guy who read his poetry to Betty so that she would admire.
(3)  Ramon is the guy who read his poetry to Betty so that she would admire him.
(3) *Julia seemed to disapprove of the fact that Joe confided in.
(3)  Julia seemed to disapprove of the fact that Joe confided in her.
(3) *Julia was frightened by Harry's grinning at.
(3)  Julia was frightened by Harry's grinning at her.
(3)  Who do you think Sheila's talking to annoyed?
(3)  Who do you think Sheila's talking to Joe annoyed?
(3) *Who do you think was annoyed by Sheila's talking to?
(3)  Who do you think was annoyed by Sheila's talking to Joe?
(3)  Who did they maintain that Max's description of would make us think
     was stupid?
(3)  Which of the candidates did the interviewer imply was no good
     while ostensibly praising?

What conditions must be satisfied for the "sympathy" construction to be
grammatical?

Consider almost finally the example in (4):

(4)  Which papers did Jill decide to tell the investigators had been shredded
     before reading?

(4) is grammatical but unambiguous.  Do these observations follow from
the proposals you developed above?

And finally, for many speakers there is a contrast between the examples in (5):

(5)  ... a man who looks older and older every time I meet.

(5)  ... a man who, every time I meet, looks older and older.

What do your proposals lead you to expect about the status of the examples
in (5)?  (I have purposely omitted the grammaticality judgments, so you
can make them yourselves.)