>
> A pronoun does not stand for a noun as the name suggests.
> subordin
> subject slot, an object slot, adverbial slots, etc.
I don't understand, Burkhard; can you explain why you are alluding to
these slots?
>
> They can be used on their own as in 'Why?' - 'Because there was no
> time.' This is a function in a 'communicateme' - a structure on one of
> the text levels.
Hmmm! I can't really imagine 'why' as a pronoun; I would prefer to think
of it as a wh* interrogative marker without any particular relationship
to pronouns. "Warum gehen wir?" would--if anything at all--stand for a
missing clause: "weil wir den Film sehen wollen" or whatever. I seem to
remember that some grammars treat clauses as objects or subjects of
sentences. I suppose in that round-about way, one may refer to them as
pronouns. I hope someone else will jump right in and clear this up.
> Subclauses can fill functional slots in mini-paragraphs, e.g.
> conditional structures:
> If this is so, topic slot
> then xxx conclusion slot.
> Etc.
If . . ., then . . . consists, logically, of antecedent and consequent
and is considered one hypothetical. In no way can the "then"-part be
thought of as a conclusion unless it pops up as the hypothetical premise
in a modus ponens. So, I am not sure what you mean by "topic" and
"conclusion" in this context.
> Why we may want to put this information in focus, may have innumerable
> reasons - this has to do with life in general. Maybe the information is new
> to the hearer, or we find it fascinating, or we want to set right what
> someone else has said, and so on.
I don't think that the actual communicative setting needs to be relevant
to a syntactic analysis.
Trink 'n Bier fuer mich mit, Burkhard, ja? <grins>
==Cheerio, Reinhold
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Dr. Reinhold Schlieper
Humanities Department 500 Shadow Lakes Boulevard
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Apartment 139
Daytona Beach FL 32114 Ormond Beach FL 32174
Phone: 904-226-6664 Phone: 904-676-9392
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