Herb,
I know you have made this case, but I'd like to hear more. In "the dog who barked," who is a pronoun and the subject of the relative clause. Are you saying that, in "the dog that barked," the verb barked has no subject? Or are you saying that a conjunction can be the subject? Or something else entirely?
Dick
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From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of STAHLKE, HERBERT F [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 4:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Pedants that or who?
We've discussed that vs. who at great length on this list, and I've made the argument, based on grammarians like Jespersen and Huddleston&Pullum, that the claim of a distinction of humanness is false. Relative-that is not a pronoun; it's a subordinating conjunction, the same as it is with noun clauses. Because it isn't a pronoun, it can't agree grammatically. Conjunctions in English don't. "Who," on the other hand, is a pronoun with human reference. The "that" form goes back to Old English. The "wh-" forms in their modern form arise in Middle English after the 13th c.
Herb
Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
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