From: Philip L. Graber (pgraber@emory.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 30 1995 - 20:30:15 EDT
On Wed, 30 Aug 1995 RoyRM@aol.com wrote:
> Where do the linguists stand on this? Is function more important in
> classification than form? Or, does form get preminence in a language that
> has such an easy breakdown?
Linguists don't, as a whole, stand anywhere, or they do stand everywhere.
Neither form nor function is more important than the other. One cannot
really understand one without the other. The issue of number of cases,
however, is not a question of form vs. function in one language at one
time, but the function of a language at a given time in relation to forms
of a different language (e.g. Greek in relation to Latin) or of the
"same" language at a different time (e.g. classical vs. Hellenistic
Greek).
A single form seldom has a single function anyway, so I say go for the
number of cases that best represents the forms. Functions will multiply
no matter how you do it.
Philip Graber Graduate Division of Religion
Graduate Student in New Testament 211 Bishops Hall, Emory University
pgraber@emory.edu Atlanta, GA 30322 USA
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:26 EDT