In Opposition to the Number Three
Professor Jerrold Sadock
University of Chicago
October 12, 2006
7PM at Illini Union 210
Sapir tells us in his Language that “… the search for a simple formula has been the undoing of linguists,” and clarifies the remark in a footnote: “If possible, a triune formula”.
Sapir was right. I intend to demonstrate this by considering in depth the trichotomy, inflection-derivation-cliticization. I will show that this triune formula is defined by a complex of a number of independent, mostly binary oppositions, some morphological, some syntactic, and others semantic or ad hoc. This gives, in fact a great many more types than three, which is to say, there is not simple formula.
I will also briefly consider other examples of ill-conceived linguistic triples suggesting that they too are the products of many simple, intersecting distinctions. I will mention, time permitting, the triples: word-phrase-sentence, subject-object-oblique, agent-patient-goal, and locution-illocution-perlocution.