Joanna,

I find it grammatical.  The context for "can" is established by
the "is" of the first clause.  Of course, I may have been
influenced by Liz Riddle, our resident expert on sequence of
tenses.  I suspect that in this case, as Liz has shown in her
work, choice of form is pragmatically conditioned, not
grammatically.

But I haven't been following this thread, and so I may have
repeated what everyone else has already said.

Herb

>>> [log in to unmask] 09/19/00 12:01PM >>>
 "(1)The little child is lonely; he would be happier if he had
someone that
he can play with."

Do any of the native speakers on this list find this sentence
grammatical? I can't imagine this being acceptable to anyone, but
maybe
I'm wrong. The 'that' clause requires 'could'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue    San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184     Fax: (805)-756-6374   Dept. Phone.
756-259
  E-mail: [log in to unmask]    Home page:
http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
                                       **
"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank
Oppenheimer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~