Cat In The Bag (via muroo, swas, dexae) Oh man this is bringing back memories from Syntax I. All sentences labelled with # cannot refer to the idiomatic secret-that-could-get-out “cat in the bag” of (1) [see Carnie 2002]: The cat is out of the bag. # The cat thinks that he is out of the bag. The cat is likely to be out of the bag. # The cat is eager to be out of the bag. # The cat is reluctant to be out of the bag. I want the cat to be out of the bag. We spent a good half hour of class-time brainstorming and testing predicates and raising constructions for cat-out-of-the-bag sentences: the cat is begging/itching…, it is possible/probable…, it is willed/fucking destined that the cat be out of the bag. Edit: The “fucking destined” one is an actual English subjunctive. Boom!

Cat In The Bag (via muroo, swas, dexae)

Oh man this is bringing back memories from Syntax I. All sentences labelled with # cannot refer to the idiomatic secret-that-could-get-out “cat in the bag” of (1) [see Carnie 2002]:

  1. The cat is out of the bag.
  2. # The cat thinks that he is out of the bag.
  3. The cat is likely to be out of the bag.
  4. # The cat is eager to be out of the bag.
  5. # The cat is reluctant to be out of the bag.
  6. I want the cat to be out of the bag.

We spent a good half hour of class-time brainstorming and testing predicates and raising constructions for cat-out-of-the-bag sentences: the cat is begging/itching…, it is possible/probable…, it is willed/fucking destined that the cat be out of the bag.

Edit: The “fucking destined” one is an actual English subjunctive. Boom!

Tags: syntax cat linguistics