Although it is often said that a person “goes to” a destination, since the second decade of the 21st century it is increasingly common to say that a person “goes to” a destination.
Many verbs have one or two specific prepositions that they like to combine. Friend wink with someone, for example, and sing for Surname.
Prepositions that a certain verb prefers can be extremely difficult for non-native speakers to master, but native speakers learn them without thinking. Native speakers also notice when a verb appears with a strange preposition hanging from its elbow.
Prepare for the arrival of some grammar nerds.
‘Arrive At’ or ‘Arrive To’?
And so our curiosity was piqued when we noticed arrive appear in contexts related to reaching a destination other than its usual counterpart Inbut with ARRIVE instead of. The trend is real: while English speakers have been saying “I’m a little late to the party” for centuries, they’re also increasingly saying “I’m a little late to the party.”
It turns out that arrive very old. The Oxford English Dictionary includes an example of the ordering from 1539, when the word was only a century old and changing. The OED also reports that arrive with ARRIVE (As with in) is now obsolete. If that’s really been the case for a while, it’s not anymore: while arrive (a destination) much more popular, arrive has been used more and more throughout the present century and especially since the late 2010s.
People who care about these things (there are at least a few of us) have criticized “coming in.” Our earliest knowledge of such an objection is Robert Baker’s 1770 ban against “coming” in the literal sense of the word (he espoused the literal “come” and “come” or “to” figuratively).
So then, to summarize where we’ve come, hem, got to this point in our exploration: arrive popular enough to be criticized since the late 18th century, rare enough to be identified as obsolete by the end of the 20th century, and popular enough back into the second decade of the 21st century to be considered by lexicographers ( such as yours really) take notes. It all makes us very curious about these words.
To satisfy that curiosity, we’re going to delve into some of the deeper realms of word geeks, with the help of a wonderful book called A comprehensive grammar of the English languageby linguists Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik.
Forward and on time
According to Quirk et al., the verb arrive (or, to be more precise, the type of situation to which it applies) is transitional: this means, with words like drop, take off, sit downAnd die, it is conclusive and punctual. “Conclusion” means there is a change of state; category as opposed to “inconclusive”, the names of verbs such as sneeze, speedAnd nod, does not imply a change of state. A verb “on time” is not “permanent”; elongated verbs like drink And snow And improve happens over a usually short period of time, while the punctual verb situation happens and ends: one person comes and that’s it—you’re there.
Position relative to the target preposition
For In And ARRIVEthe prepositions we are checking as the counterpart of arrive, they belong to two different types of prepositions. Prepositions express relational meanings, and these specific prepositions express relational meanings in relation to space (as opposed to time or cause, for example). Quirk et al. classify In as a preposition of position: like prepositional phrases with ABOVE And INWhen In at the beginning of a prepositional phrase, which usually speaks of being in a fixed position that is a point, a line or surface, or an area or volume. Meanwhile, ARRIVE classified (with above And in) as a preposition of destination: the phrase it heads usually refers to going to a fixed location that is also a point, a line or surface, or an area or volume. Both of our specific prepositions of interest involve single point.
[Skip this part if a) these distinctions are quite clear now, thank you very much, and/or b) preposition are swell and all, but omg, please no.
Quirk et al. have a set of examples that clarify it all. Consider:
My car is at the cottage. —> cottage as dimensionless point
Our cottage is on that road. —> road as a line or surface
There is some ice on that road. —> road as surface
There is a new roof on the cottage. —> cottage as surface
There are only two beds in the cottage. —> cottage as area or volume
and:
The cows are in the field. —> field as closed space, i.e., area or volume
but then:
We walked on the beach. —> beach as surface
Fascinating, right? We think so too.]
In sentences like “I was a little late to the party” and “I was a bit late to the party,” the party is a point of no dimension. (Yes, we’re sorry: even your party with its invigorating playlists and impressive sauces.)
Prepositions of place, such as Incan accompany most verbs, but they are often combined with modal verbs—words like To be And living (e.g. “I am at home,” “I live on Main Street”). Arriveit must be noted, is not such a verb.
Prepositions of purpose, such as ARRIVEoften accompanied by verbs such as Go, move, fly (e.g. “I went into the store,” “She flew to Vegas”). God, those verbs definitely sound like arrive. Hmm.
And so here we are: after all the investigation into verb semantics arrive and preposition In And ARRIVEWe see that what is already the usual preposition that goes with it arrive in phrases related to destinations for centuries looking at what could be a growing challenge is arguably more semantically relevant.
In news publications, appearances tend to feature articles by trained writers who pay close attention to style guidelines and may even have editors refine their work. surname, “to the scene” continues to be much more popular than “to the scene,” but the latter is increasingly used and has seen its use increase significantly during the second decade. 21st century. The same is true for the phrases “to town” and “to the scene”: both have prepositions of destination, and both increase.
With all this, we can only come to the conclusion that English is always full of surprises. (Of course we can still come to that conclusion.)
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
