I heard one the other night and thought perhaps the speaker had misspoken.
He said the tackler had disengaged the runner from the ball, but I would
have thought it was the other way round: the tackler disengaged the ball
from the runner.  Maybe such conceptual errors are sometimes the origin of
this kind of symmetry.

On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 12:55 PM, Brett Reynolds <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> On 2010-09-06, at 2:17 PM, Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> wrote:
>
> > I just read that "tomatoes are abundant in antioxidants." Curiously we
> could also say that "antioxidants are abundant in tomatoes" and describe the
> same factual condition.
> >
> > There are some "symmetric" predicates (such as "be married to") that
> allow a switch of subject and object: If X is married to Y, then Y is
> married to X. But in these the predicate retains the same meaning. With "be
> abundant in," the symmetry relies on different synonyms: [be abundant in =
> contain many] vs. [be abundant in = widely populate]. I wonder if there are
> any other predicates that allow a subject/object reversal and retain meaning
> courtesy of a synonym shift.
>
> "Comprise" comes to mind. From the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:
>
> 1 (also be comprised of) comprise something
> to have somebody/something as parts or members
> SYNONYM consist of
> The collection comprises 327 paintings.
> The committee is comprised of representatives from both the public and
> private sectors.
>
> 2 comprise something
> to be the parts or members that form something
> SYNONYM make something up
> Older people comprise a large proportion of those living in poverty.
>
> Best,
> Brett
>
> -----------------------
> Brett Reynolds
> English Language Centre
> Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
> Toronto, Ontario, Canada
> [log in to unmask]
>
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