For those of you who won’t be driven to despair by
another posting on relative “that” and maybe even have some interest
in it, I recommend
Van der Auwera, Johan. 1985. Relative that—a centennial
dispute. Journal of Linguistics 21:149-179.
It’s a thorough and scholarly review of the literature
on the subject going back to 1885. The author takes the position that
relative-that is not completely pronominal but has several pronominal traits.
He critiques arguments, including some of mine supporting the claim that
relative-that is simply a conjunction. I don’t agree with all of his
counterarguments, but he makes an interesting case that those of you who regard
relative-that as a pronoun will find interesting.
Herb
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