Revision as of 00:05, 16 May 2013

bound morpheme

A bound morpheme: a sequence of sounds considered to belong to a longer word by typographical convention.

• within: en l'espace de, can be used temporally or, less often, spatially.
• without: the opposite of with

• withdraw: take out, remove (v.)
• withhold: hold back (v.) (retenir, refuser)

Some more formal words:

• wherewithal: capacité (financière) (les moyens)
• forthwith: tout de suite

preposition

semantics / case

There are four common meanings for syntactic units introduced by with: the first is the notion of accompaniment, of course, "going with", going along... . With is used to describe sets (ensembles).

The difference between instrument, means, and manner arguments is often a coin-toss. Means could be thought to include instruments, and the difference between means and manner is often a question of voicing or agency.

Most important though is perhaps the

It is interesting to note that it is quite frequent to be able to replace "with" by "in" for with-instrument or with-means, but not for with-manner or with-accompaniment.

accompagnement

• We're going with them.
• OK, good, this time the brass will play with us and not against us. (with v. against)

• The old woman with the poodle over there, she said...
• The old woman over there, yeah, the one without a poodle, she said...

participation

• She's been talking with her mother again.
• They've been working with a language school.
• She's struggling with chemo.
• Fighting with the system might be more productive than fighting against the system.

set membership

• Her? She's not with me. I don't know who she is. (-- But, she says she's your sister, Madam! (-- oh right, her.) )

instrument argument

• She watched the boy with the telescope.

An often-cited case: it is difficult to be certain without context whether she was using the telescope to watch a boy who had no telescope, or if she was watching someone who in turn had a telescope. Changing the determiner from "the" to "her" significantly orients the reading towards an instrument argument. (through the telescope)

• You can touch up your CV with OpenOffice, or in Word if you prefer. Some prefer LateX.

means argument

(complément de moyen)

• The kids were covering the table with flowers.
• Her face was covered with chocolate.

(Note that in can also be used here, for a more indifferentiated view of the flowers, and a similar view on the chocolate)

manner argument

She proofread the letter with care. You may not understand the first time around, but with patience, you'll get the hang of it.