The Minor Parts of SpeechExercise
Create three PPs to represent each of the semantic categories in Table 9.
Many individual prepositions have several meanings. For example, what
meanings of around and beneath occur in sentences (21) and (22)?
(21) a. They walked around the statue.
b. I’ll return around 5:00.
(22) a. Horace stood beneath the Balancing Rock.
b. Horace is beneath contempt.This variety of meanings sometimes creates confusion for students, par-
ticularly those who simplistically associate certain structures with preposi-
tions. For instance, the indirect object construction (e.g., He gave Hilda
the bike; He bought Hilda a bike) is sometimes associated with paraphrases
using the prepositions to (He gave the bike to Hilda) and for (He bought a
bike for Hilda). However, this semantic relation emerges only when to has
a Recipient meaning and for has a Beneficiary meaning. For example, the
indirect object sentences in (23a, b) can be rephrased as the sentences with
to and for in (23c, d). In contrast, when we try to rephrase the to and for
in sentences (24a, b) as indirect object sentences, the results, (24c, d), are
ungrammatical. This is because to and for in (24) do not have Recipient
and Beneficiary interpretations, respectively.
(23) a. I offered Hickle a dozen widgets.
b. I made Hickle an artificial earlobe.
c. I offered a dozen widgets to Hickle.
d. I made an artificial earlobe for Hickle.
(24) a. I sent Hickle to the lake.
b. I made an artificial earlobe for $3,000.
c. *I sent the lake Hickle.
d. *I made $3,000 an artificial earlobe.Exercise
What, if any, difference in meaning do you perceive between He bought
Hilda a bike and He bought a bike for Hilda? (Hint: which sentence
more strongly suggests that Hilda actually got the bike?)