PREP-addition

[Wilson Gray]

Damn! It's a bitch to age out of your own language! I now feel the
utmost empathy with my grandparents who, among other things, went to
their graves calling bicycles "wheels."

-Wilson

On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 2:38 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky
<zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: PREP-addition
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Aug 7, 2008, at 10:25 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> From Slashdot:
>>
>> "[H]e's finally been located and issued _with_ a summons."
>>
>>
>> Apparently, the sands of grammar continue to shift metaphorically
>> beneath my feet.
>
> this is entirely standard for me, and you can google up vast numbers
> of similar examples.
>
> as a matter of fact, the variant *without* a preposition --
>   He's finally been located and issued a summons.
> is ok for me, but not as good as the prepositional version.
>
> let me focus this a bit by simplifying the examples to their core.
> the examples so far are passives:
>   (1) He was issued with a summons. [passive; recipient  as subject;
> "with" marking theme]
>   (2) He was issued a summons. [passive; recipient as subject; theme
> unmarked]
> the corresponding actives are:
>   (1') They issued him with a summons. [active; recipient as object;
> "with" marking theme]
>   (2') They issued him a summons. [active; recipient as object; theme
> unmarked]
> example (2') is the "double object" construction, varying with the
> prepositional dative:
>   (2") They issued a summons to him. [active; theme as object; "to"
> marking recipient]
>
> ((2') has an alternative passive, not directly relevant here:
>   (3) A summons was issued to him. [passive; theme as subject; "to"
> marking recipient] )
>
> for me, all these variants are acceptable, and all are attested,
> though i suspect with rather different frequencies, and there are
> british/american differences (MWDEU: "In British English, the
> transitive verb _issue_ is often followed by _with_" [both MWDEU's
> examples are passive] "... such usage first occurred in the early 20th
> century.  Its common occurrence has led to its acceptance by British
> (such as Partridge 1942 and Gowers in Fowler 1965).  Speakers of
> American English would say "provided with" or "supplied with" instead
> [of "issued with"].")
>
> in addition, the variants with "with" seem to be especially common in
> legal contexts, where "issue" has a meaning parallel to "serve"
> "serve someone with a summons" and "be served with a summons"  seem to
> be much more common than the unmarked-theme variants "serve someone a
> summons" and "be served a summons", though apparently all variants
> occur).  "issue" in the 'provide, supply' sense sounds much less good
> to my american ears with "with" than "issue" in the legal sense does.
>
> arnold
>
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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