Unit 4: Syntax
Lecture Note #17: Subordinate sentences with and without gaps

Now, let's take a look at the hidden syntactic structure of adjective clauses.
Consider the following sentences:
a. A special day that many people enjoy ______ is April Fool's day.
b.* A special day that many people enjoy it is April Fool's day.
c. The woman whom I talked to you about _______ is the president of the club.
d.* The woman whom I talked to you about her is the president of the club.
e. The person whose dog barked all night was disliked by the neighbors.
f .*The person x dog barked all night was disliked by the neighbors.
g . Anyone who reads the sports page has heard of Michael Jordan.
h .* Anyone _______ reads the sports page has heard of Michael Jordan.

What's the difference(s) between the above sentences? Why are b. and d. unacceptable?
Sentences a. and c are called adjective clause with gaps. The gap in sentence a. is before the verb 'is'. It's the gap of the subject of the finite verb 'is'. The gap in sentence c. is after preposition 'about' which is the position of the object of the preposition. This type of adjective clause requires a gap to make it acceptable. Hence, when the gap is filled as in sentence b. and c., the sentences become ungrammatical.

Sentences e. and g. are called adjective clauses without gaps. You can see that in front of 'barked' in e. there is 'dog' to fill the position of the subject. There is no gap that can be traced; the position of the subject in both sentences e. and f. is 'filled'. The sentences are acceptable. However, the same sentence with a gap before 'dog' becomes unacceptable. You can predict pretty easily that if the gaps would ever to be left open, as in f. and h. both e. and g. will be ungrammatical.