Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
Lingua Franca-Circular Icon

Lingua Franca

Language and writing in academe.

The Much-Needed Gap

By Geoffrey K. Pullum July 12, 2017
kindofwoman

A few mornings ago I was half-listening to a radio piece that I think may have been about women’s kick-boxing in Jordan. (Forgive me for the vagueness, but it was way before 6 a.m., and I was half dozing to the early morning sound of my bedside clock radio playing the BBC World Service magazine program

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

kindofwoman

A few mornings ago I was half-listening to a radio piece that I think may have been about women’s kick-boxing in Jordan. (Forgive me for the vagueness, but it was way before 6 a.m., and I was half dozing to the early morning sound of my bedside clock radio playing the BBC World Service magazine program Boston Calling.) As my mind slowly rebooted, I heard someone quote an inspirational saying:

[1] Be the kind of woman that when you get up in the morning the devil says, “Oh crap, she’s up.”

There’s something very interesting about the grammar of that sentence. But my guess is that only those who study syntax fairly carefully will have noticed it.

The sentence is a variation on a well-known theme; a Google Images search on “be the kind of woman” brings up scores of cards, wall hangings, fridge magnets, posters, coffee mugs, T-shirts, etc.; the image at left is just one example. (I don’t know the original author; I have seen attributions to Joanne Clancy, Jaimie Jacobs, and “Unknown"; the truth about the original source may be lost in the mist of time.)

ADVERTISEMENT

All versions of the sentence share the interesting syntactic property I’m referring to. They contain a relative clause that lacks the vacant noun-phrase position (which I will call a gap) that English relative clauses are syntactically required to have.

Consider a typical relative clause, such as the underlined part of this sentence:

[2] Be the kind of woman that the devil will be afraid of.

The gap is the unfilled noun-phrase position after of. The preposition of is syntactically required to have a noun-phrase complement. That’s why *The devil will be afraid of  is ungrammatical as an independent sentence: The of demands a noun phrase complement, but it hasn’t got one.

The reason an open interrogative like Who will the devil be afraid of?  is grammatical is that the initial who serves to satisfy the requirement imposed by of, despite being positioned at the beginning of the clause.

Relative clauses are somewhat like open interrogatives, in that they are required to have gaps, and often begin with either a wh-word (like who or which) or the subordinator that. Here’s what it’s like when you construct a sentence with a relative clause that has no gap:

[3] *Be the kind of woman that Paris is the capital of France.

It’s ungrammatical (hence the star annotation). Paris is the capital of France is fully grammatical, precisely because it does not have an unfilled obligatory noun-phrase position; hence it cannot serve as a relative clause.

ADVERTISEMENT

You might think that the problem here is relevance: The national-capital status of Paris has nothing to do with classifying women into different kinds. But a clause like people will be afraid of her is fully relevant; nonetheless, [4] is ungrammatical.

[4] *Be the kind of woman that the devil will be afraid of her.

English relative clauses require a gap, not a pronoun. (This is specific to certain languages; the literal translation of [4] into Hebrew would be grammatical.)

So it’s very surprising that [1] feels completely natural. Somehow it manages to permit semantic naturalness to override syntax. It allows the property of being an x such that when x gets up in the morning the devil says, “Oh crap, x is up” to be expressed by the clause when you get up in the morning the devil says, “Oh crap, she’s up” despite its gaplessness.

Most people presented with [1] (and this is an experiment you could undertake) would probably see nothing wrong with it at all. If told there was something wrong and asked for a suggestion as to how to correct it, they would fiddle around making irrelevant changes. Yet a grammar for English that doesn’t demand gaps in relative clauses will wrongly allow [3] and [4] as grammatical, and we don’t want that.

Do not be too surprised at this categorization of [1] as “acceptable despite being ungrammatical,” however. Mark Liberman noted on Language Log in 2014 that there are precedents going back as far as 1890 for a strangely tempting error (coincidentally involving the word gap): People writing about something valuable will mistakenly write that it “fills a much needed gap,” clearly meaning that it is much needed because it fills a gap. The grammar of the phrase (which plainly says it is the gap that is needed) cannot conceivably support that meaning. The mind can play strange tricks, it seems. Optical illusions are one proof of that. And what we have here, I think, is a syntactical illusion.

So, be the kind of woman that when you speak people are so entranced by your meaning that nobody notices your syntax.

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Protesters attend a demonstration in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, March 10, 2025, in New York.
First Amendment Rights
Noncitizen Professors Testify About Chilling Effect of Others’ Detentions
Photo-based illustration of a rock preciously suspended by a rope over three beakers.
Broken Promise
U.S. Policy Made America’s Research Engine the Envy of the World. One President Could End That.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025 Tucson, Arizona—Doctor Andrew Capaldi poses for a portrait at his lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. CREDIT: Ash Ponders for Chronicle
Capaldi Lab—
Research Expenses
What Does It Cost to Run a Lab?
Research illustration Microscope
Dreams Deferred
How Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Are Derailing Young Scholars’ Careers

From The Review

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan keeps his emotions in check during a news conference, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 in Charlottesville. Va. Authorities say three people have been killed and two others were wounded in a shooting at the University of Virginia and a student is in custody. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The Review | Opinion
Jim Ryan’s Resignation Is a Warning
By Robert Zaretsky
Photo-based illustration depicting a close-up image of a mouth of a young woman with the letter A over the lips and grades in the background
The Review | Opinion
When Students Want You to Change Their Grades
By James K. Beggan
Photo-based illustration of a student and a professor, each occupying a red circle in a landscape of scribbles.
The Review | Opinion
Meet Students Where They Are? Maybe Not.
By Mark Horowitz

Upcoming Events

Chronfest25_Virtual-Events_Page_862x574.png
Chronicle Festival: Innovation Amid Uncertainty
07-16-Advising-InsideTrack - forum assets v1_Plain.png
The Evolving Work of College Advising
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin