@DariusJahandarie I don't feel that sentence acceptable in the first expression, I think you should say "ジョンは", but when I think deeply ... (nightmare again)

@YangMuye I'm afraid the latter won't do. I'd say "彼が来るかどうか、私には分かりません"

@YangMuye Hmm... this seems interesting, it's valid and don't strike me that 誕生日 lies outside.

@YangMuye In other viewpoint, it's true that だ can't obtain a decent grammatical status, because it's a contraction of である, much as we couldn't say what the English particle don't belongs. But I know it's not what you're trying to say :)

@broccoliforest You mean both 宝箱 and ジョン marked with は?

oh, I misread it, wait a minute

sorry, the sentence is correct

as long as

宝箱は [あるかどうかをジョンが分かっている]

Right!

Or at least that's my feeling.

It feels like a very pragmatic restriction.

that's perhaps the matter of 分かる

太郎は [いるかどうかジョンが知っている]

people never understand each other :)

joking

ah, but it sounds not merely a joke

if I know that 太郎 and ジョン are telepaths communicating each other

I can say 太郎は[いるかどうかをジョンが分かっている]

or the speaker is so convinced

いるのは分かってるぞ、おとなしく出てきなさい！

@snailboat that's quite a hack, and makes much sense :)

how about I'll, you'd or they're?

oh, they seem to explain it

so these things remain as clitics

Neat paper.

I found this one on long-distance subject scrambling: repository.upenn.edu/cgi/…

It doesn't seem to be discussing the case that was relevant here though (scrambling a topic-marked animate/inanimate subject across a nominative animate/inanimate subject)

I'm still completely willing to believe that what is happening in the sentences we are discussing isn't scrambling though.