On 10 Feb 2005, at 12:26 AM, David W. Fenton wrote:
On 10 Feb 2005 at 0:09, Darcy James Argue wrote:
No, it absolutely does. Let me try one last time:
"Dog bites man."
"Man bites dog."
What's the difference? Same three words. Different meaning. What accounts for the difference?
The fact that you've switched two nouns within precisely the same grammatical structure.
Well, yes. So, you are agreeing with what I wrote below:
Grammar. Grammar controls meaning.
You wrote:
And you're not changing the grammar
Uh, never said I was.
-- you're just exchanging one noun for another in constructions that are grammatically identical.
Yes, I am exchanging subject and object -- that's a grammatical change. The content -- the words themselves -- are the same.
In other words, you've changed the content while retaining the same grammatical structure.
Uh, yes. So you're agreeing with me that it's the grammatical structure, and not the content alone, that determines meaning -- right?
Congratulations! You've just made my point!
David, you wrote, earlier today, that "grammar has no signficance in the *meaning* of any particular speech or written utterance."
I don't think anything I said supports that point. Moreover, I don't think anything *you* said supports that point.
- Darcy ----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn, NY
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