Re: USAGE: Implied prepositions in English

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:08:45 -0800, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:

>Random observation:
>
>When the two objects of a verb are reversed, a preposition is inserted in
front of the second object, as in "I gave you money. => I gave money TO you."
[...]
>Going the other way, I haven't yet figured out why some forms forbid the
preposition:
>
>John drove Mary crazy. => *John drove crazy TO Mary.
>John called the dog Spot. => *John called Spot TO the dog.
Others can probably elucidate better than I can -- in particular why this is
a good distinction grounded in solid facts of English and not just a bunch
of theorising -- but the short answer is that "crazy" and "Spot" in these
sentences aren't any sort of object: instead they're _predicatives_.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicative_(adjectival_or_nominal)
So you wouldn't expect them to partake of processes proper to objects any
more than, say, the intransitive predicatives in
  Mary seems crazy.
  Spot is a dog.
can be promoted to subject by passivisation, giving
 *Crazy is seemed by Mary.
 *A dog is been by Spot.

Alex