LINGUIST List 2.532

Tue 17 Sep 1991

Disc: That's

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1. , Re: That's
2. , Re: That's
3. , that's

Lachlan Mackenzie writes "As a native speaker of Scottish English, I can
confirm that *the book that's cover is red* is perfectly normal in
Scottish English. So, to answer David Pesetzky's question, is *the book
that's cover Mary tore*."
How about plural antecedents:
	The books that's covers Mary tore.
--to "scotch" the idea (so to speak) that the -s is a reduction of
'its'. It occurs to me that 'The book that's cover Mary tore' could
still be a reduction of 'The book that its cover Mary tore', as someone
suggested for simpler cases.
(I hope the word "scotch" isn't pejorative to a Scottish ear.)
-David Pesetsky

Without prejudice to anything of substance already written
on this weighty issue, may I respectfully suggest that the
term in question be written without an apostrophe? Or even
spelled 'thatse'?
Norman Miller

On reading the recent list of possible ways to say "the book whose cover
is red"/"the book the cover of which is red" etc., I was struck by the
absence of the way I would always say it: "the book with the red cover".
Me for avoidance every time. I should imagine that a study of this pheno-
menon would have to take such cowardly detours into consideration.
--Elise Morse-Gagne