I read the "this" of the first sentence as referring to the legend about a
Washington State legislator.

Jean Waldman

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Johanna Rubba" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 8:16 PM
Subject: Re: Jesus was an English speaker!


Scott Woods wrote:
"The point being made was not that the possibility of Jesus having
spoken English had a questionable factual basis, but that whether a
Washington State legislator actually said he did has a questionable
factual basis."


Well, this isn't the end of the world, but here is the original text:

"It may be that more than one writer or speaker actually says this, but
it is still a contemporary legend and has questionable factual basis
when reported second-hand."

The "this" of the first sentence refers to the legend about what Christ
spoke; the second sentence has a compound predicate; "it" is subject of
both predicates; "it" and "legend" co-refer. "It" is most naturally
connected to "this". Whatever the writer meant, the meaning of the
sentence as the grammar constructs it is that the legend has a
questionable factual basis, not the reports of somebody saying it.
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate 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.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page:
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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