Missing PREP differing by dialect

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Apr 3, 2008, at 7:50 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> "A Clockwork Orange"
>
> BTW, is there anyone willing to explain the meaning of this title or
> to deconstruct it in some way? Is it an orange composed of clockwork?
> Or clockwork that's orange in color? Has it a point? Or WTF?

from the Wikipedia page, the somewhat unsatisfying:

Explanation of the novel's title

Anthony Burgess wrote that the title was a reference to an alleged old
Cockney expression "as queer as aclockwork orange".¹ Due to his time
serving in the British Colonial Office in Malaysia, Burgess thought
that the phrase could be used punningly to refer to a mechanically
responsive (clockwork) human (orang, Malay for "man").

Burgess wrote in his later (Nov. 1986) introduction, titled A
Clockwork Orange Resucked, that a creature who can only perform good
or evil is "a clockwork orange — meaning that he has the appearance of
an organism lovely with color and juice, but is in fact only a
clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil; or the almighty
state."

In his essay "Clockwork Oranges"², Burgess asserts that "this title
would be appropriate for a story about the application of Pavlovian,
or mechanical, laws to an organism which, like a fruit, was capable of
colour and sweetness". This title alludes to the protagonist's
positively conditioned responses to feelings of evil which prevent the
exercise of his free will.

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