Re: RT list: Prepositions and conceptual/procedural meaning?

In a message dated 6/25/2009 10:27:49 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
maizaki@gmail.com writes: "Hello everyone, I was wondering if any work has been
done on prepositions in relation to what kind of meaning they encode. Has it
been suggested before that some prepositions can encode procedural meaning?
Thanks a lot. Mai Zaki Middlesex University
 
Since the pair Grice considers is in/to we may concentrate on that:
 
         "We are _not_," Grice writes, "particularly *at home*
with the application of notions such as 'meaning' and
'sense' to [nondescriptive] words. [A more severe difficulty
we should encounter] if asked [by M. Zaki -- JLS]
to specify the meaning or meanings of a preposition
like 'to' or 'in'" -- WoW iii "Further notes".
 
I was thinking.

Some people _object_ to the use of 'in' as applied to "Oxford" (is "_at_
Oxford", they claim -- the same people who would rather be seen dead than
using *at* London). So let's assume it's back in 1971, and Grice has been
appointed the Annual Philosophical Lecturer at Cumberland House (has delivered
the thing) and is *on* his way back _to_ Oxford. He is, as it happens,
_in_ London.
 
I thought of a different scenario where the cat, which is in the basket,
walks to the door, but found that too elementary.
 
Then I thought of the cat not walking _to_ the basket but sitting _in_ the
basket. (The problem with a mat is that you can only sit on it, hardly in
it, or, _under_ it, over it?)
 
In any case, it's obvious Grice is considering "Direction" ('to') versus
"Location" ('in') and he _is_ thinking of Kant's "RELATION" (category) which
has an echo in Aristotle's category, too.
 
But how do we formalise these things?
 
In Smith/Wilson ("Modern Linguistics") there is an interesting analysis of
'presuppositional' structures. Supposing 'to sit' is something the cat
_does_. Then naturally, the following clumsy conversation may follow:
 
    A: What _is_ the cat doing? Is she sitting in the basket?
    B: Nay, walking _to_ it.
 
So both "sitting in the basket" and "walking to the basket" are predicates
(cfr. Davidson, and the logical form of action sentences). "I painted the
cat in one sitting".
 
But we want to get into the _structure_ of the fact depicted
 
 
             Grice
  "a distinguished-looking
        philosopher"
 
             (IN) ----- (TO) ----->

London Oxford
 
 
With "L" represented "Located" and "M" representing "Moving" we could
analyse them as relations. I use 'p' for philosopher (you can read it as "Paul")
 to avoid use of _personal names_ and stick to descriptions:
 
    L (p, London)
 
    M (p, Oxford)

Now, there seems to be some scaling of things: you cannot go _to_ Oxford
unless you _are_ in England. So 'to' is some manifestation of 'in'. (But cfr.
 the Governor of South Carolina who was going _to_ Buenos Aires, but was
not _in_ Argentina, nor _on_ the Appalachian Trail).
 

----
 
A: What relationship is Grice to Oxford?
B: To.   (implicature: he is moving _To_ Oxford -- he is not  _touching_ 
Oxford)
 
A: And what relationship is he to London?
    In.    (Implicature: he is located  _In_ London -- he _is_ touching 
London).
 
With Middlesex, where M. Zaki writes _from_, it's all more complicated. I  
was once browsing a copy of the Illustrated London News, and they were  
advertising a book, edited by the editor, "The Counties of England". I wrote to  
him, "You are missing London". He wrote back, "No we are not; we count 
London as  either Middlesex or not at all". I don't know my Geography of England 
to a "T",  but it seems that if you are _in_ London (as it used to be 
_before_ 1974  changes) you were _in_ Middlesex. (There was, the editor was 
telling me, once a  thing called "The London County" but it has now gone _to_ the 
dogs). 
 
So one may want to specify that Grice is _in_ Middlesex. And in going _to_  
Oxford he is first going to be _in_ Oxfordshire and then _in_ Oxford 
proper.  Supposing he ends up in "Flag and Lamb", the pub (on St Giles's) we  may 
want to say that's where he is going _to_, too.
 
Is all this procedural? 
 
Yes, for the TO-BE-LOCATED and TO-MOVE incorporate all the concept we need  
to conceptualise about. The 'in' and the 'to' are 'excrescences' that one 
may  think detach from their associated verbs ('to be located IN', 'to be 
moving to')  -- that's what Grice found _severe_ I hope!
 
Cheers,
 
JL Speranza
   Author of "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow", etc.
 
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