Introduction

International English is used in many medical hospitals and clinics around the world such as the Xinjiang Medical University (XMU) in Urumqi, China, which provides medical education and clinical care to the people of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an area in northwest China that is the country's largest province. International English differs in many ways from the language used by native speakers of English. Those who speak English as a native language tend to be concerned with perfection and with imitating the fluency of native speakers of English. International English, on the other hand, is not about perfection or about modeling the native characteristics of Australian, Canadian, British, or American English. It is a language that is used to communicate and therefore understanding is an important part of International English. One could spend a lifetime learning how to sound like a native speaker of English. Such a quest would not be worth the effort. What is needed in International English is understanding, not native fluency. The purpose of this essay is to assist those who use International English as a second language in the medical field. There are many ways in which speakers of International English can better understand certain grammatical constructions that continues to be a problem for them. One of these can be found in the use of verbal path constructions.

Verbal paths refer to large units of grammar (macroconstituents) which specify movement of objects along a path. These units begin a path, continue it, and terminate it.

He flew from New York to San Francisco.
John gave the book to Mary
Mary received the book from John
The book went from John to Mary

This phenomenon was noticed by Jeffery Gruber (1965; 1976). He argued that the verbs "buy" and "sell" are the same verb and he wanted to treat them as the same verb at a more abstract level of syntactic representation. He noted that these verbs function as two word verbs and that they are characteristically associated with certain prepositions ("sell to" and "buy from"). The object associated with these verb undergo a movement and follow a path from a dourse to its destination. Hence, it begins at the source and ends at the destination (Ross, 2004).

This deep structure or underlying structure of verbs provides the basis for two English sentences: John sold a book to Mary and Mary bought a book from John. Which of these two sentences emerge as surface structures depends on which Noun is selected for topicalization.

 

 Rules  sell/buy the book from John  to Mary
 Topic from John sell/buy a book to Mary
 Prep Deletion  John buy/sell a book to Mary
 Verb Selection  John sold a book to Mary

 

 Rules sell/buy the book from John to Mary
 Topic  to Mary sell/buy a book from John
 Prep Deletion Mary sell/buy a book from John
 Verb Selection Mary bought a book from John

If this were an isolated case of binary verb clusters, it could be easily dismissed. However, there are hundred of verbs in English that are patterned this way. The action form of the verb which surfaces depends on the kind of preposition which follows the verb form (i.e., TO or FROM).

 

 TO

FROM

 sell to buy from
 send to receive from
 give to take from
 listen to hear from
 rent to rent from

In theoretical linguistics, one may argue about how these grammatical path constructions are represented. However, from the perspective of a pedagogical grammar, the following construction can be readily envisioned.

The best way to internalize this information is to keep in mind that "buy from" has to do with the source of the object being transferred and "sell to" has to do with the destination of the object being moved.

 

  "sell to"

 From the Source Verb  Object To the Destination
 John sold the book to Margaret
 Harry is selling the book to Mary
Martha was selling her book to Jonathan
Robert has sold his book to Mary

 

"buy from"

 To the Destination Verb  Object From the Source
 Margaret bought the book from John
 Margaret is buying a book from Harry
Jonathan was buying a book from Martha
Mary has bought a book from Robert


As noted earlier, this kind of path construction is not limited to verbs of "buying" and "selling." It also occurs in "give" and "take" constructions and how they function in the dispensing of medications..

Give-to and Take-from Verbs

One could think of "give" and "take" verbs as being related. One has to do with the source of the movement of an object (take from) and the other has to do with the destination (give to). The verbs "give to" and "take from" tends to be a source of confusion among those who engage in medical English. Once one realizes that the verbs are collocated with their respective prepositions, the problem is resolved.

 

 "give to"

 From the Source  Verb  Object  To the Destination
 The nurse  gave  the pills   to the patient
 The doctor is giving the medication to the patient
 Martha has given the order to the pharmacy
Robert has given the prescription to Mary


 "take fromo"

 To the Destination  Verb  Object  From the Source
 The patient  took  the pills from the nurse.
 Margaret is taking the pills from the doctor
 The patient was taking the medication from the nurse.
Mary has taken the prescription from the doctor

 

Pathaway Verbs

There are many pathway verbs in English. Some are associated with the source of a transfer (from) and others are associated with the destination of a movement (to). These pathway verbs are related as they have to do with the movement of an object.

 

 Source (From)  Destination (To)  Examples
 Hear from  Listen to  John heard from the doctor.
The patient listened to the nurse
 Bring from  Take to  He brought the medication from the pharmacy
He took the prescription to the pharmacy
 Lend to  Borrow from  He borrowed the towel from the towel from the nurse
The nurse loan the him the towel
 Come from   Go to  He came from Urumqi
He is going to Beijing
 Receive from  Send to  He received the note from his doctor
She sent a note to the doctor
 Win from   Lose to  He won the bet
She lost the bet
 Learn from  Teach to  He learned that from his teacher
He taught that to his children
 Buy from  Sell to  He bought the medication at the pharmacy
The pharmacist sold him the medication
 take from  Give to   The nurse gave him the pills
The nurse gave the pills to him
He took the medication from the nurse
Take your pills (from me)
I am going to give you your pills.
It is time for you to take your pills
It is time to take your pills
Have you taken your pills (from me)


There are several verbs that do not differ in their source and destination forms. This is why some linguists consider these verbs to be abstract verbs at a higher syntactic level.

 

 Source (From)  Destination (To)  Examples
 Rent from  Rent to   He rented an apartment from the manager
The manager rented him an apartment
 Migrate from  Migrate to  He migrated from Brazil to the US
He migrated to the US from China
 Run from   Run to He ran from the building
He rant to the building
 Walk from  Walk to He walked from his home to the office
He walked to the office from his home

Practicum

In this exercise, write in the correct prepositional form ("from" or "to") that is characteristically associated with the verb.

John gave the book ____ Mary.
Mary received the book ____ John.
He went ____ the pharmacy.
It came _____ the pharmacy.
He came here _____ the office.
He walked here ____ the office.
Did you hear ____ the publisher?
Listen ____ the music.
Take this package ____ the post office.
I learned much _____ him.
He won the bet _____ me.
He lost the bet _____ me.
He bought the book ____ Mary.
He sold the book _____ Mary.
He loaned the book ____ me.
I borrowed the book _____ him.
He took the medication ____ from the nurse.
He ran ____ the office from his home.
He ran _____ his home to the office.
I sent the package ____ him.
He received the package ____ me.

 

The Collocation of Location Markers with Pathway Verbs

 
Location markers form a part of the structure of pathway verbs. The source of a path, for example, is marked by an ablative form (the preposition "from") and the destination of a path is marked by a dative form (the prepositin "to"). Other locative forms associated with verbal paths are demonstratives (this = that which is here; that = that which is there) and locative markers "here" and "there." The latter can be found in the verbal path verbs "come" and "go."
Come here - go there
I want you to come here.
I want you to go there.
 
 
What these path verbs demonstrate is that "come here" and "go there" function as two-word verbs (Spears, 1993). Other pathway collocations with "here" and "there" are:
Bring here - take there
Bring the book here to me.
Take the book there to him.
 
 
The demonstratives "this" and "that" contain the locative forms "here" and "there." One finds this conflation in the colloquial expressions "this-here book" and "that-there book." It can also be found in the French constructions "Ceci livre" (the book which is here) and "cela livre" (the book that is there). In Hawaiian, the relationship is much more transparent.
    ke-puke ia
    the book here
     
    keia puke
    the-here book
     
    ke puke la
    the book there
     
    kela puke
    the-there book
 

For these reasons and others, "this" is characteristically associated with the adverb "here" and "that" is associated with the adverb "there."

Concluding Remarks

This discussion of pathway verbs is provided within the context of the person who is using medical English as a foreign language in a medical facility. The grammatical discussions are not meant to be overly theoretical, but pedagogical. The purpose of this essay is to make users of International English aware of pathway verbs and how they are semantically related to the source and the destination of an object that is in the process of being moved. If one learns these verbal forms with their associated prepositions, one can more readily understand these constructions.

 

References

Gruber, Jeffrey. 1965. Studies in lexical relations. MIT Dissertation. Available through Indiana University Linguistics Club.

Gruber, Jeffrey S. 1976. Lexical structures in syntax and semantics. Amsterdam: North Holland.

Ross, Haj. 2004. A (Creaky) Grammar of Paths. Paper presented at Standford University, October 29, 2004 as part of by Poetics Workshop, Semantics Workhop and Syntax Workshop.
http://www.standford.edu/dept/linguistics/colloq/prev/2004oct29.html

Spears, Richard A. 1993. Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs and Other Idiomatic Verbal Phrases. Linconwood, IL: NTC Publishing Group.