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Date: | Mon, 7 Mar 2005 16:23:45 -0800 |
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My favorite analogy for form vs. function is draught animals. You have a
function: pulling a wagon or plow. You have various 'forms': species of
animals. Several animal species are suited to pulling things thanks to
their strength and their willingness to take direction: mules, horses,
oxen, water buffalo ... You harness one of these animals into the traces
of a wagon or plow, and it performs the function.
If you usually use a mule and it dies, and you buy an ox, the ox does
not turn into a mule when it is put into the traces. It stays an ox, but
performs the same function that the mule did.
With respect to grammar: In phrase structure, you have roles such as
modifier and head. If the head is a noun, a number of forms can modify
it in pre-noun position:
ADJ: a clever child
Present participle: a sleeping child
Past participle: a disappointed child
Noun: a ghost child (or ghost ship)
The function of noun modification is just that, a function. The kind of
word that carries out that function varies. In spite of the many
teachers who will fight to the death over it, a noun that modifies a
noun does not become an adjective. It remains a noun, but carries out an
adjectival function: modifying a noun. (One might see this as a merely
terminological dispute -- how "adjective" is defined -- but there are
principled reasons for keeping form and function distinct.)
The same goes for clause roles. A clause (by my definition) has a
subject. Various 'species' can fill the subject slot:
Noun phrase: Her lies were obvious.
Gerund phrase: Janet's lying to her children was stupid.
Clause: That she was lying was obvious.
For-to infinitive: For her to lie was stupid.
To-infinitive: To lie is stupid.
Nonfinite clause: Janet lying is something I wouldn't want
to see happen.
Prepositional phrase: Under the bed is a good place to store this
box.
(This is not the same as "Under the bed there is a good place to store
this box". The place for storing the box is "under the bed" in general,
not a specfic part of the space under the bed, which is the "there is"
reading.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba Associate 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. 756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] • Home page:
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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