Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!world!jcf
From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Can a nonlinguistic entity be part of a sentence?
Message-ID: <D53E9u.CuL@world.std.com>
Summary: A grammatical usage of signs & labels
Keywords: semantics, signs, syntax
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 22:53:54 GMT
Lines: 11

If I attach a label HANDLE WITH CARE to a package, is the package
itself the object of the transitive verb "handle"?  Or is the verb
being used in a pregnant sense?

If the latter, then what about the sign DO NOT LEAN AGAINST on the
wall of a trolley-car vestibule?  Can a wall be the object of a
preposition?  Can a preposition be pregnant?
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        239 Clinton Road        (617) 731-9190
        Brookline, MA 02146
