I think this comes about in a different way.  As English was developing a whole array of subordinators, it used most of them with “that”.  In Middle English and Early Modern English combinations like “which that” “because that”, etc. were common.  We keep just a few of them in Modern English, like “except that”, “now that”, and a few others.  But in all other cases the “that” has disappeared.  I’d argue here that “but” in your sentence is a preposition with a that-clause as its object.

Herb

 

 

I’ve been trying to find relative examples of “but that” in some of the corpora I have. I haven’t run across a firm example yet, but I did run across the following, which I hadn’t really thought about before, and am now wondering how to analyze (FROWN J31 134-5):

There can be no question [[but that]] this resistance emanates from his ego ....

This doesn’t seem like a relative clause to me, but it’s…..relativish.

 

Bill Spruiell

Dept. of English

Central Michigan University

 

Here’s an example from Dickens of “as” as a relative pronoun. Sam Weller says, “…the turnkeys takes wery good care to seize hold o' ev'ry body but them as pays 'em…”

I’d like to see some “but” and “but that” examples.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert F.W.
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 8:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: which and that

 

Here’s another take on relative pronouns.  I happened to be checking Curme’s Parts of Speech and Accidence this morning, on another matter entirely, when I came across the following in a section headed “Relative Pronouns with Antecedent”:

“These relative pronouns are who, which, that, as, but, but that, but what (colloquial), the indefinites whoever, whatever, and whichever, and other less common forms enumerated in [his Syntax, the other part of Curme and Kurath’s A Grammar of the English Language (HFWS].”

I suspect we could get into an interesting discussion of “as”, “but”, and “but that”.

Herb