Re Personal pronouns

[Dr. John E. McLaughlin]

> [JM wrote]
> > It is.  Larry's quite clear in his explanation why it is so.

> [Pat Ryan]
> I think you are coming into this discussion a bit late to be able
> to intuit the point I am trying to make, whether correctly or not.

> But, I will give you the benefit of the doubt; and ask, before I answer,
> "why it is so" refers to what point Larry is making?

I'm not "coming in...late".  I've been reading it all along and made another
post earlier mentioning that all the intro textbooks in syntax use Larry's
distinctions and Larry's methodology to arrive at the same conclusion.
Larry is using standard linguistic methodology to define "pronoun" and
"determiner".  Just because I haven't been constantly flooding the
"mailwaves" with messages doesn't mean (as you may be implying) that I don't
know what you're writing about.  You questioned Larry about how many
linguists actually agree with this position.  I'm answering as a linguist
who does.  However, I'm afraid that you're using a methodology to define
linguistic terms that linguists don't use.  You're using imprecise
impressionistic methodology to say that, X means the same thing as Y, so
therefore X is structurally the same thing as Y.  Larry is generally saying
that X does, indeed, mean the same thing as Y, but that does not mean that
it's structurally the same.  Semantically, "I run" is the same thing as "I'm
a runner" (either could equally well answer the question, "What is your
sport here at the Olympics?").  Yet no one would say that 'a runner' is a
verb.  Larry is doing what the vast majority of linguists do.  He is
defining grammatical categories not by meaning, but by structure.  "Her" is
a demonstrative because it passes all the structural tests of a determiner,
but not all the structural tests of a pronoun.  You may disagree if you
wish, but you'd be on the opposite side of the fence from most linguists.

John E. McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
mclasutt at brigham.net

Program Director
Utah State University On-Line Linguistics
http://english.usu.edu/lingnet

English Department
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