PREPOSITION ASSIGNMENT IN ENGLISH 293(44) a. John carved the log into a canoe.
b. [do' (John)] CAUSE [[BECOME NOT exist' (log)] & [BE
COME exist' (canoe)]]
In a contrasting sentence, such as (45), from realizes BECOME NOT exist'
in LS.
(45) John carved the canoe from a log.
As indicated by the double achievement structures to the right of CAUSE,
these transformation verbs are double-patient predicates (see fn. 6), having
a syntactic and semantic valence of three: effector, patientj and patient 2.
To summarize, the semantic structures of to ana from in non-predica
tive contexts^13 can be specified as follows:
to = BECOME stative' (,(y)) from = BECOME NOT stative'
(,())
All semantic components for both prepositional functions are realized in
motion accomplishments, transfers of possession and transformations.
Thus, these structures can be regarded as prototypical contexts for to and
from.
2.5.2 Predicative from
As stated in section 2.3, from, in its predicative roles, appears to be causa
tive. The classes of verbs that take from with a causality reading are of two
sorts:
(1) the class of achievement verbs having accomplishment counterparts,
such as:
die from- kill, learn from - teach
(2) the class of stative verbs having accomplishment counterparts, such as:
suffer from- torture, see from- show, hear from - tell
Thus, CAUSE can be expressed in two ways. Accomplishment struc
tures express it directly, where the actor=the cause, as in sentences (46a),
(47a), (48a) and (49a).
(46) a. Malaria killed John.
(47) a. Arthritis tortured John.
(48) a. Experience teaches John that Aquino will win.
(49) a. The headlines show John that Aquino will win.