I don't have time to reply fully to Bob's response, but let me just say
this: if by 'meaning' you mean truth value, then the examples Bob gives
are indeed synonymous. If, however, you have a more detailed idea of
meaning, then the examples are not synonymous. Notice, for example, that
the three Rush sentences would not be intoned in the same way. _One_
function of punctuation is to signal whatever it is that intonation
signals in speech. Another thing is clausal relationship, which should
differ across all three examples (and the movement possibilities suggest
that this is the case). The relations between clauses that a speaker
wishes to express are an aspect of meaning, otherwise we would never have
a reason to prefer a semicolon over a period over a subordinate clause.
 
The 'enjoy' and 'please' sentences can't mean the same thing, if you
count focus as an aspect of meaning (functionalists do). The argument
structure is, of course, reversed for the two verbs. Argument structure
is also a part of meaning, in cognitive linguistics. I would bet that the
two sentences would be found to occur in different discourse contexts.
This turns out to be the case for a lot of supposedly synonomous
constructions. Not noticing this comes from too heavy a focus on the
sentence level of language.
 
A lot of the difference between cognitive/functional and generative
linguistics is in where the boundaries between components are drawn,
whether or not full predictability is insisted upon, and whether you are
satisfied to stop at a 'syntactic' explanation such as 'the syntactic
properties of the verbs are different' (i.e., their argument structure
is different; in generative ling. arg. structure is not a part of
semantics; in cog/fxnl ling it is), or whether you go on to look for
semantic stuff that underlies the syntactic behavior. Looking 'behind'
the syntax to meaning and discourse DOES provide explanations.
 
Bob, can you tell me why we can say 'John resembles his father' but not
'John is resembling his father'; and why 'Sue knows the answer'can  have
moment-of-speaking reference, while 'Sue builds a canoe' cannot?
 
Happy New Year to all. I'm away for a few days at a conference now til
Monday.
 
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Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184  E-mail: [log in to unmask]      ~
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