Larry’s Reviews > The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature > Status Update

Pinker is ultimately someone who knows that venison in New Zealand is called cervena, but gets his Erich Maria Remarque quotes from Niall Ferguson

Ditransitives like give imply cause to have

The holism effect invites a metaphorical construal of a changing entity as a moving entity (through state space)

Holism effect: when the affected entity sits in subject position, creates the same effect as direct-objecthood: Juice dripped from the apple and The apple was dripping with juice (holism effect), and X removed peel from the apple and X peeled the apple (holism effect)

Verbs only alternate content- and container-locative constructions if they refer both to motion and change of state (e.g., load: to load the truck with hay, to load hay into the truck; contrast fill and pour); whether the motion is caused or let happen also matters (compare: to smear and to drip).