He went to Wales for two weeks

Question

He went to Wales for two weeks.I'd like to see "for two weeks" in the sentence means the length of his two-week visit to Wales. If not, does that denote the time required for his getting there? i.e. It took two weeks for him to get there.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

anonymousHe went to Wales for two weeks.

That is equivalent to:

He spent two weeks in Wales.

CalifJim · Answer

anonymousHe went to Wales for two weeks.

A for-phrase of time does not always indicate that the action described in the sentence continued for that amount of time.

Most often it does:

Young malaria parasites then grow and develop inside the mosquito for two weeks.
Even so, Yassir said he was tortured inside the ministry compound for two weeks.

But not when travel to a destination is mentioned. In this case the action of traveling does not continue for the stated length of time:

She's going to China for two weeks, along with my mother and my mother-in-law. (going to China for a stay of two weeks)
Why have a vacation home or a second home and fly off for two weeks to Hawaii? (fly off to Hawaii for a stay of two weeks)

There are other interesting cases in addition to those which reference travel:

Experts advise taking down your feeders for two weeks at the sign of sick birds. (Don't spend two weeks taking down the feeders. Take them down once and leave them down for two weeks.)
They took X-rays and could not find a break but put a splint on it for two weeks. (They didn't continue putting a splint on it for two weeks. They put the splint on once and left it on for two weeks.)

English is so much fun, isn't it?

Language is notorious for underspecifying reality.
— John Searle

CJ

He went to Wales for two weeks

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