he walked BY the river vs. he was pushed BY the boy

[Tom Roeper]

Annette--
    here's an experiment that ought to be done to really see how it works.
       JOhn went by the river by car
          What did he go BY => the  river
           What did he GO by => car
If they get that difference then they grasp what is a real argument and what
is an adjunct.
       Tom Roeper

Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote:

> I am sure this must have been done, but could people kindly direct me
> to studies of children's acquisition of terms like by, in their
> semantic, spatial meaning vs. their grammatical meaning. He went TO
> school at 8 and returned from school at 4 vs. He had TO go.  etc.
> Many thanks,
> Annette