If there's anything I've learned from reading my own blog over the years it's that prepositions are treacherous. So when I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to teach myself Spanish (also treacherous), I wasn't surprised to encounter a new subtlety in a word I thought I knew.
My Spanish grammar reference book explains the difference between por and para spatially, since the common dream of all prepositions is to unite in the universally accessible land of volume and direction, released from the confines of a particular syntax.
"To picture the meaning of the preposition por, imagine an arrow, representing motion, inside or alongside a box. This preposition refers to movement within or alongside a specific space, depending on context" (p. 96).
Although both of these prepositions can be translated as "for," por more closely corresponds to "because," indicating the underlying cause driving a particular action. It also denotes duration ("I stayed for three hours"), passage ("He entered by the front door"), and agency/instrumentality ("She came by plane," "The book was written by them").
"The underlying concept involved with the preposition para can be conceptualized as an arrow moving toward a box. Para represents movement toward a specific space, in the direction of that space" (p. 97).
Para can be rendered as "in order to" -- it denotes the outcome an action is driving towards.
Although this is a distinction we can make in English, we don't often choose to. "For" is so convenient, always at hand, and in spite of its size has a certain gravity. Starting a sentence with "for" can be downright poetic (For one the amaryllis and the rose...). "In order to" is so clunky, "because" suggests petulance or scolding.
Yet constantly blurring cause and effect -- both of which are nestled into the single syllable of "for" -- can lead to sloppy thinking. For example, in trying to tease apart what I am doing and what I want to be doing, I end up with this confusing set of statements:
Why do I work?
I work for money
I work for the praise of my superiors
I work for the health of a community
I work for the success of a company
I work for the sake of keeping busy
I work for a promotion, to uncover new opportunities
I work for the maintenance of my stability
Pero por que trabajo?
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