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] > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web > interface at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/