What is it about?
This article offers a description of the meaning(s) of the English preposition "from" in constructions exemplified by these sentences: - That’s [the guy from the beach]! - Susan [remembered him from the beach]. - Samba’s [a dance from Brazil]. What is common across all these uses is that the preposition introduces some sort of existential starting point, which is located in someone's personal memory in the first two constructions and in reality in the third.
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Why is it important?
Descriptive significance: this paper discusses hitherto undescribed uses of "from." Theoretical significance: all constructs employed in this paper are ones developed in the theory of Cognitive Grammar, which means to the extent that my description is successful the theory is confirmed.
Perspectives
This article can be read as a paper not just on linguistic expressions pertaining to memory but on the act/state of remembering itself. This is part of what makes Cognitive Grammar an interesting and stimulating theory.
Shinya Hirasawa
University of Tokyo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The retrospective sense of the English preposition
from, Cognitive Linguistic Studies, September 2026, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/cogls.24011.hir.
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