Bill's definition of noun as the thing you make a comment about would  
be discourse-based, and likely to emerge out of theories of discourse  
rather than Cognitive Grammar. I think this discourse basis is a good  
way to think about nominals in general, leastways in subject  
position. Noun clauses and other nominalizations exist because we  
want to make comments about whole states of affairs, or non-nouns.  
E.g., "that he will show up is unlikely."

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Dept.
Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184
Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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