Re: Derived adpositions (< Linguistic term for ease of changing word-class)

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Dana Nutter <li_sasxsek@...> wrote:
>> > The idea of something for materials that diminish or
>> > disintegrate in the process is kind of interesting.
> Something
>> > like "my car runs *on* gasoline" where "on" would be some
>> > special word like "burning up".
>
>> Or more generally "consuming".
>
> Would that include food then?
Maybe.   Or maybe it would refer to consuming some material
as a means to some specified end.  In practice you eat in order
to do everything else you need/want to do, not as an end in
itself, but you would rarely talk about doing something in
particular _with_ the food you've eaten or the calories
you got from digesting it, because it's so general and pervasive,
it would apply to any activity whatever.  In contrast to washing
the windshield _with_ soap or ammonia, driving your car _with_
gasoline, diesel fuel, or ethanol etc., where the material
you're using has a more nearly core relationship to the verb,
conceptually, because you don't use ammonia all that often
for that many tasks so it's more interesting/salient.  Whereas
whether you're washing the car with calories you got from
eating potatoes or from eating rice is less core/salient/relevant.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/