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59 FORM AND FUNCTION
In (6) in the garden is a post-modifier to the head noun chair, in (7) it is an
adverbial of place (which may be given some other label). In (8) there is dispute
in the literature as to whether in the garden should be seen as an adverbial or as
a subject complement, but in either case its function is given a label distinct
from its form. Its form remains a prepositional phrase.
So why does this create problems?
The problems with form and function arise in different places, depending on
the sophistication of the analyst. Beginning students may confuse nouns with
subjects until they have the difference specifically drawn to their attention.
Since it is not always clear that the ancient Greek grammarians kept the distinction
in mind, we cannot be too surprised by this error, though today we do
want to recognise it as an error.
Problems arise more easily where the terminology does not make any distinction
between form and function. Two examples will make this point.
Consider words which can occur between an article and a noun, for example
in the _ bracelet. One obvious set of words which can occur in this position is
made up of words for colour, description and size and so on: words like blue,
cheap, long, shiny, thick, yellow. These words are usually called adjectives.
Another set of words which can occur here, though, is words for materials:
words like amber, copper, silver, and the like. These are words which usually
occur in noun phrases and in functions like those shown in (1)–(4). They are
usually nouns. And they do not behave like adjectives in that we cannot say *the
rather/very/so amber bracelet, *the copperest/most copper bracelet. So these are
not adjectives. The problem is that many grammatical models do not give us a
function label for what it is that both an adjective and a noun can do – what
their function can be – when they appear before a noun in such a phrase. We
can easily invent one. We can call these pre-modifiers, and determine that this is
the functional label we will use. But in the absence of such a label, we occasionally
find amber, copper and silver treated as adjectives in constructions like
the amber bracelet. Thus The Chambers Dictionary (9th edition, 2003) says under
amber, after defining it as a fossilised resin, ‘adj made of amber; the colour of
amber’. The same dictionary does not call crocodile an adjective, even though
the word occurs in expressions such as crocodile handbag, crocodile shoes, crocodile
tears. There is a case to be made for accepting amber as an adjective in an
amber light, but it is unnecessary to extend this to an amber necklace. Not only
adjectives and nouns may be pre-modifers, as is illustrated by the then leader
(adverb), the down train (preposition), an I don’t-want-to-know reaction
(sentence).
As a second example, consider the typology of languages according to the
order of the subject, verb and object. Languages are typically classified as SVO,