I heard this recently during a TV news broadcast.
Problem:
A preposition is missing.
Explanation:
The news broadcaster made the statement “He escaped prison.” while describing a prisoner who had managed to illegally free himself from a prison.
But the verb “escape” means to get away, or to gain or regain freedom.
So “He escaped prison.” literally means any of these:
- “He got away prison.”
- “He gained freedom prison.”
- “He regained freedom prison.”
Any of these sentences reveals to us the preposition that is missing from “He escaped prison.”
I believe that this omission is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit the required preposition than to include it.
And this blog post illustrates a simple method for discovering whether a preposition is missing, excessive, or just right. The method entails simply rewriting the sentence or phrase or expression with the definition of the verb in place of the verb.
Solution:
“He escaped from prison.”