Instrument (Instr) specifies the tool with which some Action is carried out or a Position maintained. It thus requires a [+con] SoA [state of affairs] in the nuclear predication. Instr allows for paraphrases with use and equivalent verbs: (40) a. John cut the meat ‘with a knife’ b. John ‘used a knife’ to cut the meat This does not mean that “a knife” has the function Instr in (40b): semantic functions cannot be determinate solely on semantic grounds, but also require us to consider the behaviour and the formal expression of the term in question. “A knife” in (40b) has both the behaviour and the formal expression of a Goal term.
- Dik (1989), a pag.196