[Attempto] Can subordinate sentences be subjects?

[Kaarel Kaljurand]

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 18:21, Joshua TAYLOR <tayloj at cs.rpi.edu> wrote:
>
> Is there a way in ACE to have a subordinate sentence be the subject of
> a sentence?

No, there is no such construct in ACE.

> One can easily be made the object, as in
>
> "John believes that Mary likes John." ==>
> [A,B]
> predicate(A,believe,named(John),B)-1/2
>   B
>   [C]
>   predicate(C,like,named(Mary),named(John))-1/5

Yes.

> but I'm wondering if there's any way to achieve something like this:
>
> "That Mary likes John happens." ==>
> [A,B]
> predicate(A,happen,B)
>   B
>   [C]
>   predicate(C,like,named(Mary),named(John))

No, this DRS cannot be expressed in ACE.

> By my reading of the Syntax Report, I don't see anything like this, so
> I expect that the answer is "no", but I'd be delighted to learn that
> there is.

I guess we never considered it to be an important feature. Also, it
doesn't seem to have a simple and stable expression in natural
English.

--
kaarel