Na, Ik-Joo. 2000. A Study on the Polysemy of the Preposition to. Studies in Modern Grammar 19, 191-218. This paper aims to show that the various meanings are closely interwoven based on human cognitive mechanisms such as image schemata, metaphors and focal adjustments. Traditionally, the word `to` has been treated as a case of homonymy, and `to` as a preposition is regarded as having nothing to do with `to` as an infinitival marker. In this paper, however, it is argued that the meanings of the infinitival `to` are intimately linked to the meanings of the prepositional `to.` The two types of meanings are commonly founded on an image-schematic pattern, called a `PATH` schema. This means that `to` belongs to a case of polysemy, not homonymy. The PATH schema is composed of three parts, a starting point, an end point or destination, and a continuous series of points an entity moves or traces along. The protoypical (or central) senses of `to` are elaborated on a physical space. The other senses do not contain a physical movement on a spatial domain, but they are felt to any relation with the PATH schema. The schema underlies all the senses of `to,` whether it is used as a preposition or as a grammatical marker. The schema is elaborated on various domains like time, visual perception or cognition, communication, state, through a cognitive mechanism named subjectification and various metaphors such as STATES ARE LOCATIONS, TIME IS SPACE, CHANGE IS MOVEMENT, and VISION IS A MOVABLE THING.

• 나익주 | Ik Joo Na