And on me on Jasper:
>#>This is not the same phenomenon, but it is similar. What do we make of:
>#>1. She[i] took the book with her[i/*j].
>#>2. She[i] discussed the book with her[*i/j].
>I have reservations about it, though. I find it impossible to draw, on the
>basis of meaning, a clear boundary between "freely selected" prepositions
>and "meaningless" "lexically selected" ones. So if the only reliable
>evidence for the distinction were from binding, then the explanation
>would be circular.
## I expressed it badly. The real contrast is between prepositions that
bind an existing argument of their parent and those that add an extra
argument. For example:
a. discuss ... with X. Discussing requires a co-discussant - you can't
discuss something by talking to yourself. The dependent "with" binds its
complement to the co-discussant argument. Therefore "with her" can't be
co-referential with the (subject) discussant.
b. pull ... towards X. (She pulled it towards her.) Pulling has a direction
which "towards" binds, but it doesn't bind it to its own complement: its
own refererent is a position (or whatever), which is in turn defined with
its complement as the landmark.
c. X take ... with X. This is a funny one, because the object of "with" has
to be co-referential with the subject, doesn't it. I can't take the book
with anyone but myself. Like "I haven't got a pen on me." Looks like a
construction with idiosyncratic and irregular features.
>
>I'm also dubious about your claims of meaninglessness:
>
>We discussed it among ourselves.
>I wrestled with myself.
>I wrestled against myself.
>We wrestled among ourselves.
>I made it for myself.
>
>These seem pretty meaningful to me.
## Yes, you're right. But in each case the meaning of the preposition
identifies an argument of the verb but not an extra relationship between
this argument and the preposition's object, so the latter's referent is
bound directly to the verb's argument.
Richard (= Dick) Hudson
Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London,
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.
+44(0)20 7679 3152; fax +44(0)20 7383 4108;
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm
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