Locative/Instrumental

Trevor Peterson 06PETERSON at cua.edu
Fri Jul 19 13:43:57 EDT 2002


>===== Original Message From Denny A Diehl <dd-1 at juno.com> =====
>Question:  Do I understand Wallace correctly
>stating that if indeed there is a five-case system,
>then the use of one case, as noted above, can
>mean two different ideas at one and the same time?
>I was under the impression that it would be either/or
>locative / instrumental.  Comments?

Generally speaking, I think it's safe to assume that one facet or another can 
be isolated as particularly significant for a given passage. But it is also 
true that these categories of meaning are our own constructs, often designed 
to help us grasp meaning across linguistic boundaries. Since we don't have 
precisely corresponding forms, we need to have lists of options to choose 
from. It's the same in syntax as in the lexicon. The reason lexical entries 
are divided up into sections is not that a native speaker would consciously 
think about one facet or another of the word being used but that we don't 
necessarily have a precisely equivalent idea in whatever language we're used 
to. So it is with syntax.

The writer would have a communicative goal in mind and would select 
appropriate forms to achieve that goal. Sometimes writers specifically want to 
allow more than one possible sense or a broader sense than would fit in one of 
our categories. We sometimes speak of democracy as government of the people, 
for the people, and by the people. But other times we settle for simply saying 
that it's a government of the people. We don't necessarily mean anything less 
by saying that, because "of" can cover the whole broad concept. So if I said 
"of the people" and meant the whole ball of wax, I wouldn't want someone to 
interpret what I said as meaning specifically "of the people," but not "by the 
people" or "for the people."

Does that make any sense?

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics




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