The form/function distinction is useful because it allows us to see how words of one category can be used in other categories, something English, with its highly irregular derivational morphology, does by a derivational process called functional shift. So "claim" in "I claimed that it was raining" can functionally shift to a noun as in "My claim that it was raining was bogus." Words shift category functionally with no change in form. However, we aren't always clear on what the root category might be, nor are there clear rules for determining this. Which is basic, drive as a noun or drive as a verb? Most of us would probably opt for the verb, perhaps because the noun uses have rather more specific meanings, although this is not a really strong indicator. What about "love"? Baxically verb or noun? Some words simply have to be listed in more than one category, like "like," which can be a noun, verb, preposition, subordinating conjunction, or discourse marker. One test that might be useful is to ask whether when a word shifts category it takes on the morphology of that category. For example, can a noun used as an adjective take adjectival suffixes? Adjectives can become adverbs by adding -ly. In "the book jacket" can the noun "book" functioning as an adjective become an adverb as in "the jacket looked bookly"? Probably not outside of bad parody of e. e. cummings. That would be some basis for claiming that "book" is basically a noun that can functionally shift to adjective or verb, but I'm not sure how far I'd want to push this line of argument.
On the correctness of "We read Faulkner's work and learned that he...," the question is one of the status of what's been called the Possessive Antecedent Prohibition. It turns out that this putative rule of grammar goes back only a little over six decades. The earliest appearance of it in a grammar treatise is in the early 1940s, but from that source it appears to have spread like kudzu and become as certain as the eighty-year-older prohibition on splitting infinitives. Arnold Zwicky has done extensive research on the PAP that you can find by googling either Zwicky or Possessive Antecedent Prohibition. One of many places to start is http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/just-in-nyt-violates-pap/.
As to "building," the OED classifies it as a verbal noun, or, to the preference of some, a gerund. Etymologically it's treated as "build + ing." Obviously it can also be a present participle, as in "Architects have been building tall buildings since Otis invented the elevator."
Herb
Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
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________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gerald Walton [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: December 27, 2009 11:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Gerunds and Participles
There are many traditional grammarians who argue that a word is defined
in terms of how it functions in a given sentence. So, sure, "stone" is
ordinarily a noun, but in your sentence it functions as an adjective,
and thus I would define it as an adjective. Likewise with "computer."
And, yes, "book" is ordinarily a noun, but in your sentence it functions
as a verb. Likewise with "tabled."
Too, "walk" and "drive" are ordinarily used as nouns, but in your
sentences they function as nouns.
And if you changed your sentence from "on Sunday" to just "Sunday," some
grammarians would say that "Sunday" is usually a noun but that here it
functions as an adverb.
There is one text that says that in the sentence "We went walking"
"walking" is a gerund functioning as an adverb.
I was editing a manuscript recently. The writer said "We read Faulkner's
work and learned that he..." I told him that although everybody knows
that "he" refers to Faulkner, the sentence needs to be rewritten, for
the pronoun "he" needs an expressed antecedent. It cannot refer to
"Faulkner's," for "Faulkner's" is an adjective, not a noun.
I have no idea about the development of the word "building."
Fun discussion,
Gerald
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