He prevented the damage from occurring.
He prevented the machine being damaged.
He prevented the machine being packed from being damaged.
He prevented the machine being packed being damaged.
(possible but deprecated, a comma is more likely)He prevented the machine from suffering damage.
He prevented damage to the machine.
He prevented the damage to the machine being permanent.
He prevented a riot (from happening).
He prevented the riot spreading.
ToPrevent connectsto the relation "the riot spreading" (the normal relation parameter connection - link 5 of the operator), and provides a logical False to the relation if the ToPrevent relation is True– the riot did not spread.
We can’t assume the first present participle we find is the right one, it may be a participial.
The shrubbery prevented someone driving along the road from seeing the sign.
The shrubbery prevented someone driving along the road from Gundagai.
He prevented John moving to Florida.
ToPrevent forces a relation to be false. The "from" and "to" prepositions set up the relation – the "from participle" is a significant combination – we may need to roll up any preceding prepositional chain, as
He prevented (the riot in the square) from spreading.
He prevented the machine from suffering damage
This is
He prevented (the machine suffering damage)
When we see a ToPrevent, we have to find the relation it prevents. It can take several forms:
·
A noun with an implicit or actual ToHappen or ToOccur·
A present participle joining subject and (possible) object·
Verb auxiliary as partial passive verb (being damaged)·
Noun to noun
but is essentially anything that follows, until a clause terminator is found. It is not a clausal verb, more a relational verb, which empowers present participles to create relations which can be controlled.
We will need to go active in the context of the ToPrevent, if we fail on simple forms.
ToStop and ToBlock are similar – a logical control on a relation
He stopped the riot spreading.
ToStop is a control on relation time, not logic, so the riot may have spread a little before it was stopped (if the relation was stopped before it was started, it is indistinguishable from a logical control).
He blocked John moving to Florida.
This use of ToBlock seems identical to ToPrevent.