Craig, The scriptures were sacred texts for Augustine. Yet your use of the words "for his time" and " we also no longer" excludes those who still consider the Scriptures to be sacred texts. Nonetheless, I concur that much of critical theory seems to privilege a sign's relationship to a range of other signs to determine the value of that single sign over the study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language. Diane On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 7:19 AM, Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Diane, > For Augustine and for his time, the scriptures were sacred texts. We also > no longer know how to value one text over another. It should be pointed out, > too, that this critical theory tradition seems to have pulled us further > away from syntax. For all the interest in theories about language, there > seems to be little interest in the forms it takes. > > Craig To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/