In response to Bob's note,

In Cognitive Linguistics, syntactic patterns carry meanings; hence there
is no difference between semantics and syntax. Syntactic patterns are
simply less specific and more complex items than words. That's why
sentences like 'colorless green ideas sleep furiously' are somewhat
interpretable: the syntactic patterns put the words into familiar
relationships, and we therefore try to impose those relationships on the
words.  Ray Jackendoff put forward a similar idea a number of years ago,
suggesting that syntax was in the lexicon.

Fritz Newmeyer is not a reliable source on the history of linguistics or
on functionalism. His work is extremely strongly biased _against_
functionalism, however neutral and collegial he may try to appear.

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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
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"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank  Oppenheimer
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