Edmond,
   For Christensen, restrictive and non-restrictive is a core variable. 
To be a "free modifier", the word group (here relative clause) needs to 
be non-restrictive. This gives even more ease to memory.
   The house, which jack built from extra lumber, contained malt, a 
favorite food for rats.
   This would be a truer "cumulative sentence" in the Christensen 
tradition.
   I'm off to a writing class where we'll be playing with these 
structures. They do seem to invite a kind of playfulness.

Craig

Edmond Wright wrote:
> I invented an example that readily demonstrates the difference between
> right- and left-branching as regards the relative demands they place on the
> short-term memory.
>
> Take the nursery rhyme 'This is the house that Jack built'.  The first few
> lines run thus:
>
>      This is the house that Jack built.
>
>      This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
>
>      This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack
> built.
>
>      This is the cat that ate the rat that ate the malt that lay in the
> house that Jack built.
>
>      This is the dog that worried the cat that ate the rat that ate the malt
> that lay in the house that Jack built . . .[etc.]
>
> It is plain that, from the second sentence onwards, the sentences are all
> right-branching and cause no trouble in understanding, even for the little
> children the nursery rhyme is for.  However, as in Herb's example, to
> left-branch causes a real problem, thus:
>
>          The malt the rat ate lay in the house that Jack built.
>
> No problem so far -- we can make sense of that. Next:
>
>        The malt the rat the cat ate ate lay in the house that Jack built.
>
> If you lower the pitch for each adjective clause as it comes along, and then
> raise it again (matching pitch for the appropriate subject and verb), one
> can still say this and make sense of it.  Now try this:
>
>      The malt the rat the cat the dog worried ate ate lay in the house that
> Jack built.
>
> I have found that, if again you do the step-lowering and step-lifting of
> pitch and in addition say 'the cat the dog worried' very fast all in one
> breath, and pause after the last 'ate', you can just about hold on to the
> meaning.
>
> The next stage I find utterly impossible to understand:
>
>      The malt the rat the cat the dog the cow tossed worried ate ate lay in
> the house that Jack built.
>
> So there is a memory limit here because there are now too many for the brain
> to match the subject and objects in the down-up order demanded.  You can
> stand back from the sentence easily enough and see which goes with which,
> but one can't say the sentence through and know what it means!
>
> Edmond
>
>
>
> Dr. Edmond Wright
> 3 Boathouse Court
> Trafalgar Road
> Cambridge
> CB4 1DU
> England
>
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> Website: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/elw33/
> Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256
>
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