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Araucaria's avatar

Perhaps 'into' can still take PCs today in a few constructions. Is 'a frog' a PC here?: "She turned him into a frog". How about 'a butterfly' in "The caterpillar changed into a butterfly"? [Compare: 'He became a frog' or 'The caterpillar became a butterfly']

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Bas Aarts - English Grammar's avatar

Yes, indeed, and we also have 'She turned into a frog', with a Subject-oriented Predicative Complement.

In my article I mention Jespersen's 'predicative of becoming'. See also footnote 8.

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