Re: center embedding of relative clauses

Karl Teeter (kvt@husc.harvard.edu)
Mon, 11 Mar 1996 08:18:24 -0500 (EST)

Hey, Rob, I don't quite get the point, since both of these are perfectly
grammatical and understandable English sentences...the cow the rat the
cat the dog tossed bit chased ate, etc., may be a bit more difficult. but
are still perfectly grammatical...Yours, kvt (Karl V. Teeter, Professor
of Linguistics, Emeritus, Harvard University)

On Sun, 10 Mar 1996, FREEMAN ROBERT JOHN wrote:

> Has anyone any further references about or examples of what you might
> call "topological" limitations of language structure, similar to those of
> center embedding of relative clauses in English (Aravind Joshi, cmp-lg/9411030).
>
> The rat the cat chased ate the cheese.
> The rat the cat the dog bit chased ate the cheese.
>
> I always find it an amusing brick wall in English structure, right where you
> might least expect it. I'd be interested to hear of any other similar
> "arbitrary" restrictions.
>
> Rob Freeman
>