word choice - "provide" vs. "provide with"


I am wondering if the following sentence is correct:



We add the information their study provides with to our article.



The context is: their study provides with some information. And we add the information to our article.


I want to keep the word "add", and someone told me that "provides with to" sounds wired...



Answer



The verb provide has two different subcategorisation frames:



  1. provide something [ to somebody]

  2. provide somebody with something


In the first, the material provided is the object, in the second the recipient is the object.


Both are valid, and both are in common use. The difference between them is the with phrase, which must be there to get meaning 2: if there is only one (direct) object, then meaning 1 is the relevant one (the to phrase is optional).


The stranding you are doing can be grammatical, but because you are using with, it is grammatical only if the recipient is explicit as the direct object



We add the information the study provides us with to our article.



(Thanks to Jonathan Spirit for the example)


If you are not expressing the recipient, you need to use pattern 1, which has no with:



We add the information the study provides to our article.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

verbs - "Baby is creeping" vs. "baby is crawling" in AmE

commas - Does this sentence have too many subjunctives?

grammatical number - Use of lone apostrophe for plural?

etymology - Where does the phrase "doctored" originate?

phrases - Somebody is gonna kiss the donkey

typography - When a dagger is used to indicate a note, must it come after an asterisk?

etymology - Origin of "s--t eating grin"