Les préposition de To et For : grammaticalisation et subjectivation

TO and FOR are examined from the point of view of grammaticalization and subjectification, in the light of diachronic as well as synchronic evidence. The various forms of grammaticalization affecting TO and FOR and the processes which led to the development of their non prepositional uses are analysed first. The second part deals with subjectification. The latter is defined as a process of semantic expansion resulting from the appropriation by speakers of linguistic tools inherited from earlier generations. Prepositional TO is analyzed as expressing telicity, whereas FOR, which locates the referent of its complement in a separate space, expresses cause and goal. Those basic semantic features are argued to explain the distribution of the two prepositions in English.