h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There we go!

Just a quick thought about come and arrive.
Arrive seems to be more specific to the moment
of arrival whereas we might say 'it comes from
(insert place name)' for some time after it has
arrived. (Note that some processed goods can be
said to have 'derived' from natural resources
that 'came' from places abroad.)


~jwf~

[Listens to the "William Say Overture"]

If I say something to you, I may or may not be too concerned about how closely you've listened. If I am telling you something, I will probably expect some of it to have been listened to.

As for arrival, it has to do with where I'm arriving AT as opposed to where I come FROM. I think.

Ya gotcher Arrivals and Departures
and ya gotcher Comings and Goings.


"A parcel has arrived in the Post"
"A parcel has come in the Post."

We hear both and we understand both without questioning
but can a parcel can be said to have come since it has
neither volition nor mobility of its own. It hasn`t really
come, someone has brought it. And it has arrived.
Yes - No.

-jwf-

You can "come to" as well as "come from" a place. Although it isn't as rude to tell someone "you'll come to a muddy hole in the road" as it is to tell them "you come *from* a muddy hole in the road".

To me the difference is that the arrival is the endpoint. The coming is the travelling, the arriving is when it stops.

"To come" and "to arrive" appear to be intransitive verbs, so don't take a direct object. The object of the action is the subject - there is no action transfer from subject to object, instead the action relates back to the subject. The action represents an altered state of the subject. Both can receive an indirect object (I believe) which in this case is related to the subject.

Arrive seems to have a narrower definition than come. Arrive comes from latin ad ripa, meaning "to the river bank / shore of a river" and so originally meant the action of stepping off a boat and onto the river bank - to a river (bank), hence to arrive. Come seems to have a somewhat murkier germanic origin.