Johanna,

I'm very grateful for your metaphor involving a fuel injector (whatever
that might be) because it illuminates the issue so clearly.  Surely, a
grammarian who defines grammatical terms only with other grammatical
terms is just like a mechanic who explains engine parts exclusively by
their relationship with other engine parts, but is unwilling or unable to
describe the extrinsic purpose of the engine in non-automobilese,
i.e., transporting people from one spot to another.  Who cares how a
machine -- or a sentence -- works if no one knows what it is for? 

David 

> Maybe some people don't like the idea of defining one grammatical term
> by referring to other grammatical terms. But grammar is a system of
> interdependencies. No one would object to defining a fuel injector by
> referring to other car parts and their functions; indeed, there is no
> other way to understand the concept of a fuel injector. Grammar deals
> with the parts of language and their functions. These all work in
> concert to connect meanings to each other.
> 
> I wouldn't go near true/false judgments with a ten-foot pole. There is a
> whole tradition in the philosophy of language, along with a
> counter-tradition, which explores truth/falsity as a metric for defining
> linguistic units. Keyword: truth-conditional semantics. There are
> lengthy works that defend the notion that true/false judgments are
> crucial to defining a sentence, and others that argue against that
> claim. Have fun wading through all that!
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
> English Department, California Polytechnic State University
> One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
> Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
> • E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>                                        **
> "Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
> but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank  Oppenheimer
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>