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Nuts and bolts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

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Summary

It's usual to think that meaning is contained in words, the way sardines come in tins, or milk in bottles. Words are things you can look up in a dictionary. If you don't know what ‘iconoclastic’ means, a dictionary will help. But even though I do love dictionaries, I'm the first to admit that they'll only take you so far. Meanings also reside – perhaps even more essentially – in the grammar of the language, what some like to call its nuts and bolts. Here a dictionary is less helpful (try looking up ‘it’) and a grammar reference is needed, though such books tend to be über-unfriendly. This is a pity because grammar embeds meaning in centrally important ways. Take pronouns for instance – ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’, etc. – which furnish one small example of grammatical nuts and bolts. One function of pronouns is to impart a sense of ourselves and our relationship with others, a crucial element of the social function of language, arguably its most important. All the sections in this chapter show how pronouns manage the nexus of grammar and meaning.

In the kingdom of we

Let's talk about ‘we’. I mean the pronoun ‘we’, as in plural subject: ‘you and me’. Not the ‘wee’ that explains the temperature of the paddling pool. Nor the endearing ‘wee’ that Scots are wont to add to nouns: ‘Come on in for a wee moment and have a wee cup of tea.’

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Chapter
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You Know what I Mean?
Words, Contexts and Communication
, pp. 1 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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  • Nuts and bolts
  • Ruth Wajnryb
  • Book: You Know what I Mean?
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487064.001
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Nuts and bolts
  • Ruth Wajnryb
  • Book: You Know what I Mean?
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487064.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Nuts and bolts
  • Ruth Wajnryb
  • Book: You Know what I Mean?
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487064.001
Available formats
×