English prepositions
English prepositions are words – such as of, in, on, at, from, etc. – that function as the head of a prepositional phrase, and most characteristically license a noun phrase object. Semantically, they most typically denote relations in space and time. Morphologically, they are usually simple and do not inflect. They form a closed lexical category.
Many of the most common of these are grammaticalized and correspond to case markings in languages such as Latin. For example, of typically corresponds to the genitive.
History of the concept in English
The history of the idea of prepositions inEnglish grammar writing can be seen as one of relative stagnation, only exceptionally interrupted by certain more influential authors... It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that the situation radically changed and since then, grammarians have introduced scientifically precise definitions and developed detailed and elaborate frameworks for their description.The word preposition is from "Latin praepositionem 'a putting before, a prefixing,' noun of action from past-participle stem of praeponere 'put before'," the basic idea being that it is a word that comes before a noun. Its first known use in English is by John Drury, writing in Middle English on Latin grammar.
The meaning was essentially the same as the general idea today: a simple word preceding a noun expressing a relation between it and another word.
William Bullokar wrote the earliest grammar of English, published in 1586. It includes a chapter on prepositions. His definition follows:
A part of speech properly used prepositively, that is governing an accusative case set next after it as, I go to the church: and is sometime postpositively used, that is, when it governeth the relative, that, or which, coming before a verb, whose governing preposition is set after such verb: as, this is the man whom we spoke of, or of whom we spoke; and is some time used in composition after a verb, but being severed from the verb by the adverb, not, or by an accusative case, may be said to be set in apposition adverbially.
Some grammarians, though, noted problems. In 1746, John Kirkby complains: "we have several instances of the same word being used at one time as a conjunction and at another time as a preposition." And in 1784, John Hunter
argued in much more detail, in a paper presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in its first year, that neither conjunctions nor adverbs were in all cases usefully distinguished from prepositions in English. He stressed that classifications were being based on the "merely accidental" differences in what constituent happened to follow the word. The rational analysis is to treat after as simply a preposition governing a complement that can be either a noun phrase or a clause.In 1924, Otto Jespersen developed these ideas, pointing out that prepositions were the only lexical category defined by the type of complement. In other words, prepositions were defined as words that take a noun phrase complement. Verbs, though, take various complements, including object, goal complement, predicative complement, and no complement at all, in the case of an intransitive verb. Similarly, an adjective phrase may consist of an adjective alone or with a complement. Jespersen also noted that many words, such as before in I came before, which were categorized as adverbs, were very similar in meaning and syntax to prepositions. And the same held for many words categorized as subordinating conjunctions. He therefore proposed that all these words are prepositions, and that the requirement that they be followed by a noun phrase be dropped. This is the position taken in many modern grammars, such as The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. On the other hand, dictionaries and ESL grammars have not adopted these ideas. For example, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary has before as an adverb, preposition, and conjunction.
Preposition vs other lexical categories
Prepositions vs verbs
Both prepositions and verbs license NP objects, but in most cases, the distinction is clear because verbs conjugate, and prepositions do not. There are, however, a number of prepositions derived from participial verb forms, which could be confused with verbs. Modification by really is typically possible with a VP but not with a PP.Intransitive prepositions vs adverbs
One of the results of the reconceptualization of prepositions by Jespersen and others is confusion between intransitive prepositions and adverbs. Many adverbs end in -ly, which clearly distinguishes them from prepositions, but many do not. One simple test that is often telling is to modify the phrase by right or just. In Standard English, adverb phrases do not accept such modification Also, PPs commonly function as complements in a be VP, while adverbs cannot normally do so.Prepositions vs complementizers
"Complementizer" is a term which has its origins in generative grammar. It refers to a restricted subset of what are classified as subordinating conjunctions in traditional grammar. There are only a very few complementizers: that, whether, and if are the main examples.Traditional grammar includes words like because, while, and unless in the class of subordinating conjunctions. But since at least Jespersen most modern grammarians distinguish these two categories based on whether they add meaning to the sentence or are purely functional. The distinction can be shown with if, since there is a complementizer if and a preposition if. The preposition introduces a conditional meaning. Complementizers, though, have no meaning. They just mark a clause as subordinate; there is no difference in meaning between I know that you were there and I know you were there. Similarly, in She asked if we were there the complementizer if merely marks the following clause as a closed interrogative content clause, without adding any conditional meaning.
The syntax of prepositions and PPs
Internal structure
PPs are usually quite simple in their internal structure. The following syntax tree shows a PP with an adverb phrase as modifier and a head PP. The head PP has a head preposition in and an object NP the rain.When the preposition governs an argument of a larger phrase, such as a noun phrase, the object of the preposition is sometimes called a prepositional or oblique argument. For example, convert the energy of ocean waves into electricity becomes the conversion into electricity, where the underlined NP – which is the object in the PP headed by of – is the oblique argument of conversion.
Postpositions
A very small number of prepositions may occur after their object, for example, notwithstanding, which can appear either before the object or after.Complements of prepositions
s of English characterize prepositions as words that take objects in the form of noun phrases. Though the prototypical prepositional phrase consists of a noun phrase complement following a preposition, prepositions can take a wider variety of complements than just noun phrases. English prepositions can also take clauses, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and other prepositional phrases as complements, though they occur less frequently than noun phrase complements.Noun phrase complements
Prepositions typically take noun phrases as complements. For example, the prepositional phrase on the table consists of the head on and the complement the table, and the prepositional phrase in the area consists of the head in and the complement the area. By analogy with noun phrase complements of verbs, noun phrase complements of prepositions are occasionally called objects in grammars of English.Like objects of verbs, objects of preposition typically carry accusative case. Thus, we expect to see prepositional phrases like near me and at her rather than near I and at she because me and her are accusative case pronouns while I and she are nominative case pronouns. Indeed, some grammars treat the inability of prepositions to have nominative case pronouns as a defining characteristic of prepositions. An exception to this rule about case seems to occur when the preposition takes a coordinated pair of objects, such as someone and ''I. In these cases, usage varies, and the pronoun can carry either nominative or accusative case. For example, users of English might say "between you and I" or "between you and me". Some commentators have called the former "illiterate" and a sign that the English language is deteriorating, according to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, nominative case pronouns as part of a coordinated pair of prepositional objects have occurred in respected works of literature and are actually more characteristic of educated varieties of English than of less educated varieties.
In some cases, the object NP in the PP is atypical in that it lacks a determiner. For example, I'm at school is grammatical, even though an NP headed by the singular noun school usually requires a determiner; *They're building new school is not grammatical because it is lacking a determiner. Other examples are in hospital and to bed. Typically the meaning here implies a purpose. For example, going to the bed does not suggest sleeping in the way that going to bed does''.
Clause complements
Prepositions that take a clause as a complement are called conjunctive prepositions or subordinating prepositions. Conjunctive prepositions can take a variety of kinds of clauses as complements. Most often, they take finite clauses as complements. These finite clause complements can be declarative or interrogative. They can also be subjunctive clauses.Less commonly, conjunctive prepositions take non-finite clauses as complements. These non-finite clause complements include infinitive clauses and present participle clauses. These clauses may occur with or without subjects, and subjects that do occur can be in accusative case or genitive case. Though various usage commentators have called both cases incorrect in such clauses, many writers use both constructions, and the choice of case often depends on the context. For example, the accusative case is more likely when the subject is emphasized, a phrase intervenes between the subject and the verb, or the subject is plural.