Kathleen,

I think this is a case where the language allows alternative
complementation to "work".  The "for" here may be by analogy either to
the benefactive "for", as in "He worked for his sister", or to the
durational "for" as in "he talked for two hours."  But the verb "work"
allows either a bare time adverb, like "he worked two hours" or the
temporal prepositional phrase "he worked for two hours."  You don't have
to call it an idiom.  They're simply alternative structures.

Herb

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathleen M. Ward
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 2:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "work for" plus adverb clause

One of my students asked me what to do with the following sentence:

	He worked for as long as he could.

Now, "as long as he could" is, I think pretty clearly an adverbial 
phrase, containing in itself a comparative clause with deletions.  The 
question is, what do you do with the "for"?  I understand that it can 
be omitted--and then the analysis is easier.  But I would not want to 
say that an adverbial phrase can be a complement/object of a 
preposition.  Is "for" a preposition here?  Is it a particle? Do I just 
throw up my hands and call it an idiom?

How do other people see this?

Kathleen Ward
UC Davis

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