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linguistic methodology

Clayton Bartholomew wrote:

> I would suggest that Chomsky was correct in stressing the arbitrary 
> relationship between syntax and semantics. Now the word arbitrary here 
> is used in the same way it is used in lexical semantics. It means that a 
> syntactical pattern maps to a semantic domain, which like lexical 
> semantic domains is somewhat fuzzy on the edges.  This fuzziness does 
> not spell the end to all exegesis. It does not mean that a syntactical 
> pattern can be used just any old way. But it does mean that the meaning 
> of the utterance is not tied directly to the semantic pattern. It does 
> mean that statements like: it is impossible for EN+dative to indicate 
> the *content* of filling, are dubious statements.

It seems that you have misquoted what I actually said. This is what I
said:

**************
But your interpretation is ruled out by the extreme improbability or
impossibility of EN+dative indicating the *content* of filling.
**************

I did not say that the *content* idea was impossible but that it was
"extremely improbable or impossible". In hindsight, using "ruled out"
was probably a bit strong - perhaps "highly unlikely" would be better.

cheers,
Andrew

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