Daniel Kies Department of English College of DuPage
Modern English Grammar English 2126		Contact Form

Final Matters:
Metaphor, Indeterminacy, and Gradience

In one sense, we have completed our discussion of all the ranks (or levels) of grammar. Initially, we started by discussing some of the grammatical patterns in the smallest constituents of grammar (morphemes) and we have traced the development of grammatical patterns through the word, phrase, clause, and clause complex, finishing with a discussion of grammatical patterns that arise within texts as a whole.

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Nonetheless, before we end this discussion, we need to talk about a few more points.

Grammatical Metaphor

Metaphor, as we know, is a figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, its original referent. Now, some people mistakenly believe that the use of metaphor is limited to special forms of language only, such as literature or biblical exegesis:

But ye loveres, that bathen in gladnesse — Chaucer

The sky rejoices in the morning's birth — Wordsworth

The Lord is my shepherd — Psalm 23

Take this, each of you, and eat; this is my body — Matthew 26:26.

Such metaphors are "traditional" in poetic, highly figurative language. In such a context, it is not unusual to think of the passion of lovers as an all engulfing water, or of the morning sky as a woman giving birth to the sun, or of the Lord as a protective, guiding shepherd caring for the flock, or of the bread at the Last Supper as the body of Christ.

Yet metaphor is really quite common in most "ordinary" varieties of language. Consider the passage from Russell's autobiography again.

(a) Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. (b) These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

(c) I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy — ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. (d) I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness — that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. (e) I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. (f) This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what — at last — I have found.

(g) With equal passion I have sought knowledge. (h) I have wished to understand the hearts of men. (i) I have wished to know why the stars shine .... (j) A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

(k) Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. (l) But always pity brought me back to earth. (m) Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. (n) Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. (o) I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

(p) This has been my life. (q) I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

In sentences (b), for example, Russell employs the metaphor that LIFE IS A VOYAGE, as we can see in the word choices great winds, have blown, hither and thither, wayward course, and deep ocean. Similarly, another metaphor is the controlling idea the helps to unify sentences (c) through (j), the metaphor that THE GOALS AND PURPOSES OF LIFE ARE HIDDEN; WE MUST SEEK THEM OUT.

We see the metaphor at work in

(c) I have sought love, first, ...

(d) I have sought it, next, ...

(e) I have sought it, finally, ...

(f) This is what I sought, and ... what ... I have found.

(g) ... I have sought knowledge.

(j) A little of this ... I have achieved.

(There is a still another metaphor at work in Russell's writing. He uses it primarily in sentences (k) and (l). Those sentences exploit a nexus of up with positive associations while down has negative associations.)

Finally, there is another kind of metaphor that is especially characteristic of written English — grammatical metaphor. Grammatical metaphors are created through the grammatical process of 'derivation' by which a verb or an adjective is converted into a noun, often by adding an ending to the verb or adjective. (Many of the noun suffixes we discussed earlier are used in the process of derivation.)

John acts silly. (verb)

John's actions are silly. (noun created by derivation=grammatical metaphor)

Grammatical metaphors are one hallmark of written English. They occur quite commonly in all varieties of written English, from the informal varieties of take a bath (Halliday 1985) to the formal varieties found in scientific and technical writing (Kies 1985a).

Idioms and Collocation

From our discussion of cohesion above, we know that frequently paired words or a set of words that usually occur together form collocations. Superficially, idioms also appear to be frequently paired words or a phrase with a set pattern in the wording. The difference between a collocation and an idiom, however, is the meaning. The meaning of a collocation can be interpreted by combining the meanings of the separate words in the phrase; the meaning of the idiom is more than (and often quite different from) the meaning of the separate words within the idiom.

Idioms	Collocations
up the creek (in trouble or difficulty)	give and take
to catch one's eye (to attract attention)	bacon and eggs
cornball (superficially sentimental)	through good times and bad

Sometimes the same set of words can function as an "ordinary" phrase, an idiom, or a collocation. Look at sentences (5) through (7) below. Which sentence uses bread and butter as an "ordinary" noun phrase, an idiom, and a collocation?

5. Bread and butter makes a good, quick snack.

6. Bread and butter are becoming increasingly expensive.

7. Engineering was my father's bread and butter.

Sentence (5) uses the collocation, while sentence (6) contains the ordinary phrase, and (7) uses the idiom.

Indeterminacy

One of the most interesting advances in recent work in the study of modern English grammar is an explicit description of the inherent gradience in grammatical categories. Grammatical categories, it seems, are not discrete entities. Rather, they grade off (in a 'fuzzy' way) into related categories, cf. Halliday (1994), Kies (1985b and 1990), Matthews (1981), and Quirk et al. (1985). Halliday (1994:xix-xxxv) discusses the 'ineffability of linguistic categories' and uses the term cline to describe the grammatical property discussed here, while Kies (1985b) and Matthews (1981:17-21) describe the indeterminacy inherent in grammatical categories.

Much of the work on gradience has focused on syntactic gradience in grammatical forms, e.g., forms that exhibit syntactic properties of both nouns and verbs, adverbs and adjectives, or verbs and adjectives. (The gradient nature of grammatical forms was often noted in scholarly grammars of English, cf. Curme (1931) and Jespersen (1933), and one can trace this discussion to Dionysius Thrax, who raised the first questions about gradient forms by positing the participle as one of eight word classes of Greek grammar.) However, equally interesting are the syntactic gradients found in grammatical functions, e.g., the grammatical object that shares some of the syntactic features of the subject or object complement and the subject complement that shares some of the syntactic features of the adverbial (cf., Quirk et al. 1985:90, 147-148, 732-738, and 1216-1220). Gradience in grammatical function has often been dismissed as examples of 'structural ambiguity' or 'multiple analysis,' cf. Quirk et al. (1985:90-91). Yet such an easy label seems to suggest, incorrectly, that gradience in grammatical function is simply (or only) a binary choice: the ambiguous sentence can be analyzed into both structure A and structure B. Those analyses of structural ambiguity miss some important generalizations: cases of structural ambiguity often represent only two of many discrete points on a gradient, and gradience in function is not independent of gradience elsewhere in English grammar. The gradient can be demonstrated through several syntactic tests -- passive, coordination, interrogation, movement, and deletion.

Understanding gradience is central to understanding grammar works in real language. We can illustrate and examine both formal and functional gradience at many levels of grammar. Consider, for example, passive voice verb phrases as in John is tired. The participle in that verb phrases illustrates a gradient between the adjective and the verb word classes. The participle is verb-like in that it has a verb ending (-ed), it has an auxiliary verb preceding it (is), and exhibits the hallmarks of the passive voice verb phrase. Yet the participle is adjective-like too in that it can be modified with adjectives such as very, as in John is very tired. Notice, by contrast, that verbs as a group do not use premodifiers like very. Compare sentences like John is running and *John is very running.

Consider also, for another example, sentences with structures like NP1 V NP2 to-V NP3 (We expected Jim to win the race). Those sentences fall on a gradient between monotransitive constructions and ditransitive constructions, with complex transitive constructions as the intermediate ground, cf.:

(1) We like the parents to visit the school. [monotransitive]

(2) We expected Jim to win the race. [complex transitive]

(3) We asked the students to attend the lecture. [ditransitive]

First, notice that substitution of something for NP2 to-V NP3 structure divides the three sentences into two groups; (1) retains its meaning while (2) and (3) change their meanings, cf.:

(4) We like something. [same meaning as (1)]

(5) We expect something. [different meaning from (2)]

(6) We asked something. [different meaning from (3)]

Likewise, passive demonstrates that the NP2 to -V NP3 constituent is indivisible in (1) while the passive of (2) and (3) are acceptable, cf.:

(7) *Parents are liked to visit the school.

(8) Jim is expected to win the race.

(9) The students were asked to attend the lecture.

So substitution and passive tests demonstrate that NP2 to-V NP is a single constituent in sentence (1) following a monotransitive verb. Furthermore, these tests demonstrate that NP2 is one constituent and to-V NP3 is another constituent in sentences (2) and (3). The passive test allows an object function interpretation of NP , but the functions of to-V NP3 are not yet determined.

Therefore, consider substitution of something for to-V NP3 in sentences (2) and (3), cf.:

(10) *We like the parents something.

(11) *We expected Jim something.

(12) We asked the students something.

Also, consider what questions focusing on to-V NP3 , cf.:

(13) *What did we like the parents?

(14) *What did we expect Jim?

(15) What did we ask the students?

These tests suggest a nominal function for to -V NP3 in sentence (3). Thus the verb in sentence (3) is ditransitive, and the to-V NP3 constituent is another object, a direct object.

Notice that the object function of to-V NP in (3) is supported further by two facts: it can be the focus of a pseudo-cleft sentence and can be the response of a who-question, cf.:

(16) *What we like the parents was to visit the school.

(17) *What we expected Jim was to win the race.

(18) What we asked the students was to attend the lecture.

(19) *What did we like the parents? To visit the school.

(20) *What did we expect Jim? To win the race.

(21) What did we ask the students? To attend the lecture.

Finally, the constituent to-V NP3 in sentence (2) seems to function as an object complement (capable of joining the object Jim in an intensive structure with some form of the verb be), suggesting a complex transitive structure, cf.:

(22) Jim is to win the race.

However, here lies another complication: all of the sentences demonstrate this intensive relationship between NP2 and to-V NP2 , cf.:

(23) Parents are to visit the school.

(24) The students are to attend the lecture.

So what argues for the monotransitive analysis of (1) and the ditransitive analysis of (3)? Primarily, it is the substitution of something, as above, that argues for the nominal character of NP2 to -V NP3 in (1) and the nominal character of both NP2 and to-V NP3 in (3).

Thus it is on the basis of substitution, passive voice corresponding sentences, pseudo-cleft corresponding sentences, and focus in who-questions that the decisions about the exact transitive nature of each sentence is made, although each sentence is an example of multiple analysis on a gradient.

CONCLUSION

In a real way, our class has been a story, a story exploring a number of structures and systems that contribute to making human language the rich and expressive medium that it is. And in the course of this story, we have used the word pattern forty-three times in the supplemental readings. There is a reason for that. Grammar, like the rest of the language, is a system, and all systems exhibit patterns in their operation and design.

But another part of this story merits repetition here too: words and grammar work together. Those of us who use language everyday, be we bank presidents or toddling babies, know that already. Those of us who study language rigorously are just beginning to understand the significance that idea.

Finally, as the last word on grammar, we would all do well to remember Humpty Dumpty's lesson on words and grammar:

— Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

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