RT list: Re: "for"

"answer for", "be responsible for", "respond for"

-----Original Message-----
From: Paulo Sousa <p.sousa@qub.ac.uk>
To: relevance@linguistics.ucl.ac.uk <relevance@linguistics.ucl.ac.uk>
Sent: Sun, Jan 10, 2010 3:48 pm
Subject: RT list: help on possessive pronoums and preposition "for"
Dear all,
 Happy new year! I'm looking for current work on the semantics and
pragmatics ... of the preposition "for."
... I'm interested in whether one knows about any discussion of the
contribution, if any, this preposition may give to the meanings of
sentences like these: 
a) The captain is responsible for the ship (the captain ought to make
sure that the conditions of the ship remain safe)
b) The rain was responsible for the accident (the rain caused the
accident)
c) The captain is responsible for the death of the passengers (the
captain is to blame for the death of the passagers)

----
Continuing with my incomplete etym. thoughts on this and not having 
consulted the OED2 yet -- I wish a listmember would provide the 
relevant passage, it seems that indeed, the etymology helps here. If to 
be responsible is to be able to answer or respond for, one can see why 
that preposition is kept in the nominal collocation in question:
1. The captain shall respond for the ship. He shall answer for the 
safety of
    the ship. The ship cannot answer for herself, so the captain answers
    for, i.e. on behalf of, the ship.
2. The rain shall respond for the accident. There has been an accident 
and
    the rain has a lot to answer for.
3. The captain shall respond for, on account of, the death of the
    passengers. Passengers died and the captain has a lot to answer for.
--- I think I learned "to answer for" from N. Sales, public domain, a 
member of Savoynet. Describing his first visit to the A. S. Sullivan 
memorial in the Strand, London, he wrote words to the perlocutionary 
effect: the amount of dirt on the statue was unbelievable. The pigeons 
in the nearby trees have a lot to answer for".
I would think that in the Romance languages, a derivative of Latin, 
´per´ would be maintained in the cases of the conjugated form of 
´respond´. "I respond for ...". ´Who responds for this child? He cannot 
on his own. He is a minor, he holds no responsibilities."  "I do. I am 
his guardian. I shall respond for him".
Etc. But again, consulting the OED seems the thing to do here, since I 
would guess or bet that "responsible of" gets a few hits, too.
J. L. S.