306 JULIA A. JOLLY(77) a. John hopes for a Mercedes.
b. [hope' (John, [BECOME have' (John, Mercedes)])]As illustrated in the LSs for sentences containing predicative for, even
when for is syntactically followed by an NP argument, the semantic situa
tion specified is complex. Compare sentence (77) with sentence (78), where
to is followed syntactically by an NP argument and also specifies a semanti-
cally simple object.
(78) a. John gave the book to George
b. [do' (John)] CAUSE [BECOME have' (George, book)]
The functions oí for and to in these sentences are significantly different;
while both prepositions are non-predicative, syntactically followed by NP
arguments, the semantic content of for is complex (always specifying a
proposition), while the semantic content of to is simple. Notice that for +
NP in (77a) can be replaced by a clause, as in (79), while to + NP cannot.
(79) John hopes that he will get a Mercedes.
In (79), the semantic relation between hope and its argument is the
interclausal purposive relation. (See Figure 1.) In (77), this same semantic
relation is coded in the preposition for. The same interclausal semantic
relation is involved in both contexts, analogous to the clause linkage rela
tions in contexts with before, discussed earlier. The semantic structure
posited for hope is [hope'(x,y)], where y is a propositional LS. Thus, non-
predicative purposive for marks the second argument of two-place stati ves.
In the predicative functions, for specifies two situations, as stipulated in the
two semantic components of PURP: (1) a volitional agent desiring an out
come and (2) an action by the agent (LS1) to produce the desired outcome
(LS 2 ). In the non-predicative functions with statives, for specifies only the
first situation — [want' (x, LS 2 )]. Since the verb is a stative, no activity +
achievement (i.e., accomplishment) is possible. The main clause verb,
hope, shares a propositional argument [BECOME have' (John,Mercedes)]
with for, in addition to the semantic content common to hope and want. To
recapitulate, the semantic content of purposive for can be specified as:
(1) want' (x, LS 2 )
(2) DO (x, [LS1 CAUSE LS 2 ])
With the non-predicative functions, only component (1) is realized and LS 2
is a direct argument of the stative verb. With the predicative functions,
PURP codes the semantic relationship between LS1 and LS 2. In the