http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/proper-anaphoric-islands/ A blog mostly about language Tue, 21 May 2013 18:02:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/proper-anaphoric-islands/#comment-29987 Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:04:19 +0000 http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/?p=11562#comment-29987 Yes, ordinary speakers are rarely troubled by anaphoric island violations, at least when they have the context for the sentences. Linguists notice, as do grammatical sticklers (who are inclined to literally look for trouble).

]]> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/proper-anaphoric-islands/#comment-29984 Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:58:09 +0000 http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/?p=11562#comment-29984 That’s great. I didn’t know that battleships had representation in the United States House of Representatives. No wonder military spending has such strong support in Congress.
Hilarious now that it’s been pointed out, but how often are language users constrained by the anaphoric island constraint? We’re normally extremely efficient at identifying referents and largely oblivious to oddities like this one.

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