Marshall,

I would regard "He looks like he used to" and "He looks the way he used
to" as close paraphrases.  They even share the same ambiguity.  Both can
mean either "He resembles his former appearance" or "He peers in the
manner as he used to".  The fact that we can substitute something
adverbial (preposition or conjunction) for "the way" certainly lends
credence to interpreting "the way", in this sentence, as adverbial.
However, I don't like to rely heavily on paraphrase.  It happens to work
fairly well here, but it doesn't always.

Herb


Herb,

Do you see the two sentences in question as being paraphrases of each
other?

Is that a factor to consider when analyzing the function of "the way"?

Marshall

Stahlke, Herbert F.W. wrote:

>Karl,
>
>I didn't comment on the relation of the whole NP to the matrix
sentence.  "The way...used to" has an adverbial role modifying "looks".
The most obvious demonstration of this is that it answers the question
"How does he look?"  "The way he used to."
>
>Herb

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