Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995 00:28:56 -0700

From: Rudy Troike RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU

Subject: Re: Perspective on/of



Dennis--

Et al.--

I agree completely with your analysis of Steve's Martians. As I

suggested previously, "of" expresses the genitive relationship in this

nominal construction, in which "Martian scientists" serves as a "subject"

or agent (what traditional grammarians called the "subjective genitive").

The PP of Martian scientists forms an IC with perspective , as shown

by the commutation test of being switchable to prenominal position with

a following GEN suffix: Martian scientists' perspective . This then forms

an IC with on issues of linguistic difference , which serves as a kind of

"object" of perspective . Perhaps the difference in preposition usage

reflects Fillmore's observation that an inherent P would tend to override

a structural of when the latter was serving as a subjective or objective

genitive marker.

--Rudy Troike (rtroike[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ccit.arizona.edu)