Argument (linguistics) - Importance

Importance

The distinction between arguments and adjuncts is crucial to most theories of syntax and grammar. Arguments behave differently from adjuncts in numerous ways. Theories of binding, coordination, discontinuities, ellipsis, etc. must acknowledge and build on the distinction. When one examines these areas of syntax, what one finds is that arguments consistently behave differently from adjuncts and that without the distinction, our ability to investigate and understand these phenomena would be seriously hindered.

Read more about this topic:  Argument (linguistics)

Famous quotes containing the word importance:

    What is done for science must also be done for art: accepting undesirable side effects for the sake of the main goal, and moreover diminishing their importance by making this main goal more magnificent. For one should reform forward, not backward: social illnesses, revolutions, are evolutions inhibited by a conserving stupidity.
    Robert Musil (1880–1942)

    When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The moment Germany rises as a great power, France gains a new importance as a cultural power.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)