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Ask-A-Linguist - Message details
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Subject:
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Ambiguous sentence?
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Question:
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Hi!
I have the sentence: I want one of the candies that is/are red. I read it with 'is', others with 'are'. My reason is that [CP [C of] [DP [D the] [NP [candies]]]] adjoins to N' of 'one' to form 'one of the candies'. This would preclude 'candies' as an antecedent of 'that', as there would not be a c-command relation. This begs the question, how is the sentence derived. I assumed it starts 'one is red', with the trace of one being spelt out as 'that' in PF.
I would be very grateful for your opinion.
Thanks in advance,
Peter
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Reply:
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It's exactly as Susan said.
Another way to see it is to split the sentence before of:
Of the candies that are red, I want one.
Of the candies, I want one that is red.
Not the same meaning, logically speaking.
But, since they both indicate you want a red candy,
they're pragmatically interchangeable.
Perhaps that's what's bothering you.
Lots of stuff is like that; division by 2 and multiplication by .5
arrive at the same result but don't get there by the same route.
-John Lawler http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler/McCawley-Lg.pdf
"The relation between logic and thought is similar to that
between medicine and health. If you're healthy, medicine
is useless; but if you're ill, medicine can sometimes help.
However, you have to take just the right medicine in just
the right dosage, there may be dangerous side effects,
and it can be habit-forming." -- James D. McCawley
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Reply From:
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John M. Lawler
click here to access email
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| Date: |
Sep-03-2009
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Other Replies:
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Re: Ambiguous sentence?
Elizabeth J Pyatt
(Sep-04-2009)
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Re: Ambiguous sentence?
Susan Fischer
(Sep-03-2009)
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