Prepositions in whose minds?

Metaphorical usages of in & into
Both in vs into occur in expressions of the metaphor states are containers (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 30–32) – e.g. be/fall in love (i.e. love is not actually a container) and run into trouble (i.e. trouble is not always something like a large, grim-faced rugby player that we can literally and unfortunately run into). And both prepositions occur in expressions of the metaphor coming into existence is approaching (cf. ibid. 30), e.g. exciting new colors are coming inW, come into existence/view. A particularly interesting metaphorical usage of into is seen in the expressions make/change/transform (s’thing) into s’thing (else). Let’s consider the case of a frog changing ‘into’ a handsome prince. The use of into becomes understandable if we note that the frog changes his form – not his personality, which includes being male not female. So, the original personality goes ‘into’ a different physical form. More fundamental changes are conceivable, though. For example, when medieval alchemists tried to do things like change lead ‘into’ gold they were not so much hoping for a change of shape (or volume) as for a change of nature (i.e. substance). Nevertheless, we may use into to talk about this kind of change as well, since what the alchemists wanted to do was move the cheaper metal ‘into’ the condition of being gold. Again, it is completely normal for us to speak of conditions as if they were places or spaces we can be in – e.g. a car in good (or bad) shape/condition.We will look at further idiomatic uses of in in Chapter 4.
According to Merriam-Webster, the technical definition of a preposition is “a word or group of words that is used with a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, location, or time, or to introduce an object.” Simply put, prepositions are connector words. These connectors customarily tie a noun to an idea. An example of this is in the sentence, “I went to the store.” “To” connects the location of “store” to where the person went. Often a preposition is a short word such as on, in, or to. This standard is not the only option; it can also be a longer word, multiple words, or a short phrase. “In front of” is an example of a short phrase. She parked her bike in front of the school. Prepositions are common in the English language. There are about 150 used with the most common being: above, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, by, down, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, to, toward, under, upon, with and within.