Bob,
  I believe that a hammer is formed like a hammer because that form is
suitable for its function. In that sense, the forms of grammar are
context sensitive. We have ways to ask questions, for example, or make
statements. These have evolved because language occurs between people,
and we have evolved ways to offer or request information, and we have
evolved ways to target the specific information we are looking for or
offering, and so on. You can disagree, but I don't think that is an
unusual position.
   There are different kinds of context relevant, one kind of which is the
surrounding sentences. Another, of course, is the place and setting and
previous interactions between the speakers. There may be unequal
relations between the participants (parent and child or teacher and
student) and so on, all of which certainly factor in. We should also
include the intonation pattern, which can change the tone and the
emphasis quite easily and routinely. (These can certainly be thought of
as part of the grammar.) But to say that syntax alone isn't sufficient
is not to say that it doesn't have a huge role in the construction and
construal of meaning. Grammar is a resource for interaction.
   I think I have heard the schema exemplified by "How cold does it have
to get" before in a number of instances and so have come to expect that
it is being used sarcastically when it is posited as an equivalent to
"shut the window." But I won't go so far as to say it has to be
sarcastic. If it wasn't sarcastic, though, then Bruce wouldn't have
been able to say it means the same thing as "shut the window". Example:
someone says, "please lower the temperature." And I say "How cold does
it have to get before I shut the window?" But it would be a huge
stretch to think of that as an order.
   I think there are schema that carry with them an expected tone. I
suspect we have all heard teachers say "How many times do I have to ask
you to be quiet" or mothers who have said "How many times do I have to
ask you to clean your room." We don't need the second part of the
statement or to hear the actual intonation to suspect that this is a
person at the end of their patience. The main factor here is frequency.
We can vary expectations, of course, but they are real.
   Quite frankly, we need a theory of grammar that can help us understand
what is going on within any context of use. As I said to Bruce, you
can't expect to get to context from form. But we need a grammar that
recognizes the interactive nature of discourse and the special features
of syntax that help us organize longer stretches of talk or text.
   "A drunk driver killed my dog" is a different statement from "My dog
was killed by a drunk driver." There is an overlap of meaning, of
course, but what changes is the focus of the proposition, the
information in the usual "given" slot, and the information in clause
ending emphasis. They only mean the same thing if you think those other
"meanings" are unimportant.
   I don't think it is making subject ambigious to say that actor and
grammatical subject don't always coincide, and there are very
practical, very meaningful reasons for those variations. Those reasons
are much easier to talk about in context.

Craig

Craig,
>
> Thanks for your discussion of Bruce's examples.  I am puzzled by a couple
> of things
> you write.
>
> You begin by discussing the meaning of an utterance is based on context.
> The discussion
> is clear to me.
>
> ***********************
>
> Craig: "How cold does it have to get" could mean many things, and
> the only way it can include the idea of shutting a window is to put it
> into an imaginary context.
>
> **************
> However, in the very next sentence, the notion of meaning seems to be
> dropped.  Did you mean to write "meaning from form" instead of "context
> from form'?
>
> And, do you really mean to say "the formal structures we utter are context
> sensitive"?  Or did you mean to say "the meaning of the formal structures
> we utter are context sensitive"?  See the example that follows.
>
> ********************
>
> Craig: A functional approach is not going to say  that we can infer
> context from a form, but the opposite--that we need context, and that the
> formal structures we utter are context sensitive.
> "How cold does it have to get" makes no sense out of context, so we
> infer a context for it.
>
> ******************************
> One interpretation of the following is that the examples with "how much"
> are patterns we have learned  to indicate sarcasm or rudeness.  I don't
> think that interpretation can be correct.
>
> **************
> Craig:  I would see it as what usage based construction
> grammar calls  a "schema", a form meaning pairing unpredicted by the
> general rules of a formal syntax and one that  has blanks to fill in.
> "How much snow has to pile up before you shovel it?" "How much does the
> garbage have to stink before you take it out?" "How many examples do I
> have to give before a concept comes through?"  The schema brings with it
> a kind of sarcasm or rudeness that is part of its meaning. Rudeness is
> part of the schema.
>
> ***********************
> If they construction How many/much X before Y is always rude or sarcastic,
> then the passage contradicts the statement about the importance of context
> and I assume you do not want to be contradictory.
>
> It must be the case that we need context to determine whether this
> construction is rude or contradictory.  Again, if that is the case, then
> how does one recognize when "How many/much X, before Y" is a real question
> and when is it a rude or sarcastic statement.
>
> A formal theory of grammar says nothing about how an utterance is
> interpreted in a given context.  Do you know of a theory of grammar that
> does tell us how an utterance is interpreted in a given context?
>
> Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri
>
>
>
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