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''Le mixage, le metissage, l'emprunt à des cultures differentes sont des caracteristiques essentielles de cette population.''
''Le mixage, le metissage, l'emprunt de cultures differentes sont des caracteristiques essentielles de cette population.''
What's the difference? In my manual I have the first form, ''à des'', and I can't understand why not the second one.
The meaning is different.
l'emprunt à des cultures = borrowing from cultures (borrowing something from cultures)
l'emprunt de cultures = borrowing of cultures (two possible meanings - either borrowing the cultures themselves, or the cultures doing the borrowing)
Ms LKL explains it very well. Just my two cents:
"...l'emprunt à des cultures differentes sont des caracteristiques essentielles de cette population" => ce qui est emprunté; i.e. the adaptations of different cultures are referred to as the 'caracteristiques essentielles'.
"...l'emprunt de cultures differentes sont des caracteristiques essentielles de cette population" => ce qui les cultures ont empruntés, d'origine ailleurs; i.e. the borrowings made by the different cultures are referred to as the 'caracteristiques essentielles'.
