lisa@mit-vax.UUCP (Lisa Chabot) (05/12/84)
For those who may be unable to think of a situation where "I know a person who ..." might be preferred, I can think of examples for you. Sentences that you might want to use this form are those in which you want to include aliteration (or avoid it, for those of you aliteration fearers). In conversation and in mail I often find myself aliterating all over the place (please excuse that extravagance). For example, I know a person who plays [poker] [poorly] [periodically] [for pennies] ... I know someone who studied [summers] [at Stanford] ... Myself, I would try very hard to use 'person' and 'someone' when I was trying to disguise the sex of the person (you know, your roommate's name is Jean/Gene and you don't want your parents to know the sex of your roommate; or you're dealing with someone that you want to fool, like the old puzzle about the surgeon who declares "I can't operate--this is my son" but who isn't the father of the patient). But back to aliteration: I know a woman who watches [whales/weasels/other women :-)] I know a man who's a misogynist :-) Pay no attention to that address at the top of the page, Lisa Chabot ...decwrl!rhea!arden!chabot (I NEVER read my mail here at MIT!)