But why is 'to grow' permissably used with inorganic subjects, but cannot be used in its causative sense with inorganic objects?

"Our friendship grew over the course of years."

Many people seem to deplore the attempts of groups (usually governmental) which try to legislate language usage, but then if somebody (actually a lot of bodies) use language in some new way, these same people get bent out of shape.



Ceci n'est pas un seing.