- [ex 001 "I walked <u>[p en/for Duration]</u>/<u>#in</u> 20 minutes."]

- [ex 002 "I walked to<sub>[ss Goal]</sub> the store <u>[p en/in Duration]</u>/<u>[p en/within Duration]</u>/<u>#for</u> 20 minutes. [see [exref 005 Interval]]"]

- [ex 003 "I walked a mile <u>[p en/in Duration]</u>/<u>[p en/within Duration]</u>/<u>#for</u> 20 minutes."]

- [ex 004 "I mowed the lawn <u>[p en/for Duration]</u>/<u>[p en/in Duration]</u>/<u>[p en/within Duration]</u> an hour."]

Note that the presence of a goal [exref 002 Duration] or extent of an event (<i>a mile</i> in [exref 003 Duration]) can affect the choice [ss Duration] preposition, blocking [p en/for].
[exref 004 Duration] shows a direct object which can be interpreted either as something against which partial progress is made—licensing [p en/for] and the inference that some of the lawn was not reached—or as defining the complete scope of progress, licensing [p en/in]/[p en/within] and the inference that the lawn was covered in its entirety.

The object of a [ss Duration] preposition can also be a reference event or time period used as a yardstick for the extent of the main event:

- [ex 005 "I walked [p en/for Duration] the entire race. [the entire time of the race]"]

- [ex 006 "I walked <u>[p en/throughout Duration]</u>/<u>[p en/through Duration]</u>/<u>well [p en/into Duration]</u> the night."]

- [ex 007 "The deal was negotiated [p en/over Duration] (the course of) a year."]

But [p en/over] can also mark a time period that <i>contains</i> the main event and is larger than it. While the path preposition [p en/over] highlights that the object of the preposition extends over a period of time, it does not require that the main event extend over a period of time:

- [ex 008 "He arrived in town [p en/over Time--Duration] the weekend. ([ss Time--Duration])"]

Note that [p en/during] can be substituted for [p en/over] in [exref 008 Duration] but not [exref 007 Duration].

Some [p en/for]-[ss Duration]s measure the length of the specified event’s <i>result</i>:

- [ex 009 "John went to the store [p en/for Duration] an hour. [he spent an hour at the store, not an hour going there][^1]"]

- [ex 010 "John left the party [p en/for Duration] an hour. [he spent an hour away from the party before returning]"]

A [ss Duration] may be a stretch of time in which a simple event is repeated iteratively or habitually:

- [ex 011 "I lifted weights [p en/for Duration] an hour. [many individual lifting acts collectively lasting an hour]"]

- [ex 012 "I walked to the store [p en/for Duration] a year. [over the course of a year, habitually went to the store by walking]"]

See further discussion at [ss Interval].

[^1]: This stands in contrast with <i>John walked to the store [p en/for] an hour</i>, where the most natural reading is that it took an hour to get to the store ([Chang et al., 1998](/bib/chang_et_al_1998/), p. 230).