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<TT>Dear Funknetters, I have been following this discussion with some interest
but not with the concerns expressed so far (unless I have missed something).
Over the last two + decades, many functionalists have devoted a good amount
of time questioning the wisdom of giving so much weight to the <I>sentence</I>
as a primary unit of analysis. Wally Chafe and others have done a
good job of demonstrating the value of using language segments based on
tone/prosody, which do have very real constraints. I would like to
ask why this focus on the sentence has been renewed. This has brought
us back to philosophical discussions that often only work to remove us
from functional concerns. I would like to ask how we might bring
cognitive, biological, social, cultural, etc. concerns into the discussion,
using real discourse examples. Please don't misunderstand me, I find
the discussion so far fun and generally interesting; I just wonder where
the functional perspective has gone.</TT><TT></TT>
<P><TT>-- Douglas</TT><TT></TT>
<P><TT>--</TT>
<BR><TT>|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|</TT>
<BR><TT>|Douglas S. Oliver
|</TT>
<BR><TT>|Department of Anthropology |</TT>
<BR><TT>|University of California
|</TT>
<BR><TT>|Riverside, CA 92521
|</TT>
<BR><TT>|e-mail: dsoliver@earthlink.net |</TT>
<BR><TT>| or: douglaso@citrus.ucr.edu |</TT>
<BR><TT> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</TT>
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