Suppose you were to say something like, "Maria Bello is like the product of a gene splice between Sharon Stone and Frances MacDormand," and some poor benighted soul were to ask, "Who's Frances MacDormand?" Could you say, "She's who Maria Bello is like the product of a gene splice between Sharon Stone and?"
No. No you could not.
Not even "She's who Maria Bello is a cross between Sharon Stone and."
That's not to say that there's something mysterious about barriers like this, just that I personally don't understand them. Or any others. This post may stand in lieu of the post I was planning about my insecurities about linguistics etc., or it may not. Maybe these people will help me.
Posted by Matt Weiner at October 7, 2005 11:28 PMYou could say, "what do you mean, who's Frances McDormond? Get away from me, you philistine."
Posted by: bitchphd at October 8, 2005 12:38 AMQ. What's a barrier?
A. It's that which prevents you from answering "Who's Frances MacDormand?" with "She's who Maria Bello is like the product of a gene splice between Sharon Stone and" or "She's who Maria Bello is a cross between Sharon Stone and."
Isn't this just a matter of pragmatics? That is: Supposing that they heard what you said, this fact about Frances MacDormand is already established. They still want to know who she is, so they are asking for further information.
That said, everything I know about linguistics I learned over beer from people who had actually learned some linguistics. It is probably the case that there is no pragmatics/semantics distinction, and (as such) the answer in the previous paragraph is like an explanation of combustion in terms of phlogiston.
Posted by: P.D. at October 8, 2005 11:21 AMNaw, definitely not pragmatics--the utterance is supposed to be uncooperative, a la Prof. B, but it's still ungrammatical. Ron is right, I think.
Philosophers who take linguistics seriously seem to believe in the pragmatics/semantics distinction. And I think Geoff Pullum had something up at the Language Log about a definitive proof that there was such a distinction, but I can't find it. Though the fact, if it is one, that he felt it needed to be said tells you something.
Posted by: Matt Weiner at October 8, 2005 09:19 PM