Re: Cases and Prepositions (amongst others)

Raymond Brown wrote:

> And now, how does one analyze the common South Walian colloquialism: "from
> over by here" ?  Does the preposition 'from' make 'over' into a
> substantive?  If so, we then have 'by' linking one substantive with another
> which must surely make 'by here' and adjectival phrase, qualifying the
> substantive 'over'.
>
> Somehow, I still feel that treating both 'from here' and 'from over by
> here' as composite adverbs somewhat easier.
I think that "here" (and "there" and "where") have both adverbial and
pronominal functions, without regard to which came from what.  The
parallelism between "here" and NPs seems too strong to ignore:

        "It came from there."
        "From where?"
        "From the Black Lagoon!"

This whole discussion is a good example of the pitfalls of essentialism:
"It's an adverb!" "It's a pronoun!"  "Adverb!" "Pronoun, you twizot!", etc. etc.
Talking about word functions, rather than about immutable word classes, is
far less likely to provoke useless controversies.  We may dispute forever about
whether (e.g.) art is expression or communication, but we are much more likely
to agree that art communicates as well as expresses.

Somehow, I can't resist throwing in the sentence "Why did you bring that book
I don't want to be read to from about Down Under up here?" here.

(Hmm.  Maybe "here" in "I'm here" is really a pronoun in the locative case?)

--

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)