I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that:
a) This is a rather unmotivated question.
b) I can't remember whether or not I've asked this before, but searching doesn't seem to turn anything up so ...
Consider some "shape" function $phi: mathbf{R} to mathbf{R}$. Then given some function $f: mathbf{R} to mathbf{R}$, one can ask whether the "difference quotient",
$lim_{yto x} frac{f(y)-f(x)}{phi(y-x)}$,
exists at various points $x$. Letting $phi(x) = x$ corresponds to taking normal derivatives, and intuitively when the limit exists this means that near $x$, the function $f$ "looks like" $phi$ does near 0.
However, if the ratio $phi(x)/x$ is not bounded above or away from 0 as $xto 0$ (I'm mostly thinking of the case when it is neither, so that $phi$ is "wildly oscillating" in some sense), then anywhere the above limit exists and is nonzero, the function $f$ is necessarily non-differentiable.
My question: If $phi$ is some wildly oscillating function as described above (pick your favorite), can there be an $f$ for which this limit exists everywhere?
(Edit: I suppose I really want $phi$ and $f$ to be continuous functions.)
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