Preposition

10 Key excerpts on "Preposition"

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  Unpacking Metaphor-related Prepositions in Political Discourse

  From Polysemous to Powerful

  • Mokhtar Ounis(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  These dictionary entries consistently highlight two main characteristics of Prepositions: first, their position within a sentence, and second, their function. Prepositions are defined based on their location in relation to other entities within the sentence. Three out of the five definitions incorporate the term “before”, while the fourth definition employs the term “preceding” to emphasize that this positional aspect is intrinsic to the meaning of the Preposition.

  The etymology of the word “Preposition” underscores its inherent emphasis on position. Its origins trace back to the Latin term praeponere, which combines the prefix prae, denoting “before” or “in front of”, with the verb ponere, meaning “to place” or “to put”. As such, a Preposition signifies an element intended to be positioned before or placed in front of another entity within a sentence.

  In addition to their positional aspect, Prepositions have another distinct feature: their function. Both dictionaries and grammar textbooks define Prepositions by the function of creating a relation between two entities within a sentence. For example, Quirk et al. (1985 : 657) assert that “a Preposition expresses a relation between two entities, one being that represented by the Prepositional complement, the other by another part of the sentence”. Additionally, the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, a classical grammar reference, defines a Preposition as “mortar which binds [the main building blocks of] texts together” (Biber et al. 1999 : 55).

  When these two aspects are combined, a Preposition signifies an entity intended to be positioned before another entity while simultaneously establishing a relationship between the preceding entity and the succeeding entity.

  While these two dimensions distinguish a Preposition from other parts of speech, they alone are insufficient to fully define its precise meaning. The question arises: is the meaning of a Preposition independent or contingent on the relations it establishes, or is it a combination of both? Regarding the first view, it posits that a Preposition possesses a fundamental semantic value that is accompanied by a constellation of interconnected meanings. Alternatively, the second view posits that Prepositions derive their meanings through their semantically related associations and that these meanings can be accurately determined and anticipated via computational means, as explained by Srikumar and Roth (2013

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  Language, Cognition, and Emotion in Keats's Poetry

  • Katrina Brannon(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Prepositions play an essential, constructive, and linking role in grammar and semantics. In regard to this, Gibbs remarks that “Prepositions seem to be particularly good at pushing their objects around” (1994 : 48). Furthermore, one intrinsic quality of Prepositions in language is their ability to express the notions of space and time, which are very often conceptualized and verbalized metaphorically, as there is an inherent “thematic parallelism between space and time that results in a single set of abstract relations between the two domains [of space and time]” (Gibbs 1994 : 168). Thus, it is logical to see Prepositions as grammatical elements which are fundamentally metaphorical, given the fact that their primary vocation within language is to allow for the expression of processual relationships. This unique quality of Prepositions thus renders them particularly salient in the analysis of conceptual metaphor, particularly within poetic language, as the combination and multiplication of metaphorical expression is central. As R. Gibbs observes, “metaphorical mappings do not occur in isolation from one another” (Gibbs 1994 : 152). This leads to reflection upon the intrinsic metaphoricity of grammatical classes and the ways in which they are capable of rendering conceptually metaphorical concepts more salient metaphorically, by way of the superposing of “higher and lower metaphorical mappings” (Gibbs 1994 : 152). Therefore, Prepositions are key to the full expression of conceptual metaphor: particularly in poetic metaphor, within which the combination of metaphorical mappings is most welcome. Spatial Prepositions, moreover, play a special role in metaphoric expression. 1 In Chapter 4, I delved into the inherent link between conceptual metaphor and force-dynamic expressions. This exploration will continue in the present chapter, as Prepositions hold an important role in causality

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  American English Grammar

  An Introduction

  • Seth R. Katz(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  16

  Key Points

  • Prepositions are function words that convey meaning about locations and movements in space and time, as well as more abstract relations like possession, source, and other literal and metaphoric relationships.
  • A Preposition functions as the head of a Prepositional phrase (PP).
  • A PP always requires a nominal, most often an NP, as a complement of the Preposition.
  • A PP may function as an adjectival or an adverbial.
  • An adjectival PP may function as a post-modifier of a noun.
  • An adverbial PP may function as a modifier of a verb; a complement of a verb; a modifier of an adjective; or a sentence modifier.

  3.4 Exercises: Prepositional Phrases

  1. Made-up sentences:17
     • For each sentence,
       • Identify each complete PP.
       • Identify each Preposition.
       • Identify each complet
         NP:PCOMP
         .
       • For each complete PP, try to identify whether it is adjectival or adverbial.
       • For each complete PP, try to identify its function (e.g. “MODIFIER OF noun ” or “SENT MOD ”).
       Sometimes, there are PPs inside other PP s. Remember

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  A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar of English Creoles

  • Anand Syea(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  8 Prepositions

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003458289-8

  8.1 Introduction

  This chapter looks at Prepositions in English creoles. Section 8.2 provides some background information on Prepositions in English. Section 8.3 looks at Prepositions in English creoles. Section 8.3.1 focuses on their semantics while Section 8.3.2 looks at their syntax, focusing on Preposition stranding (Section 8.3.2.1 ) and Preposition particles (Section 8.3.2.2 ). Section 8.4 summarizes this chapter and provides a few concluding remarks.

  8.2 Prepositions in English

  Unlike other categories, Prepositions tend to be both lexical and grammatical. Like lexical categories, they express meanings such as location e.g., on, under, by, and so on, or time e.g., after, since, during, and so on, and like grammatical categories, they tend to be smaller in number, more difficult to create, and sometimes have a purely grammatical function, for instance of when used to link an adjective or noun to its complement e.g. afraid of the dark, fond of ice-cream, development of the country, box of matches, threat of war, and so on.

  Prepositions in English are also unlike other categories in that they do not display any inflectional or derivational morphology. There are, for example, no Prepositions with plural -s e.g. *on-s, or the comparative suffix -er e.g. *under-er, or the participle -ing suffix e.g. *under-ing, and so on, nor Prepositions with derivational suffixes such as -er *beyond-er, -ly *beyond-ly, -ic *beyond-ic, and so on. However, like other categories, they can combine with words from other categories to form compounds such as outlay, overdose, inset, downturn, bylaw, upload, etc. Such compounding is, of course, limited. We can, for instance, have downtrodden but not *uptrodden, outsource but not *insource, implant but not *explant, and so on.

  Prepositions, like verbs and adjectives, can be transitive or intransitive. Transitive Prepositions are Prepositions such as while, during, and at in that they cannot occur without their complement/object e.g., *The children slept while/during, while Prepositions such as in and after can occur without a complement e.g. They went in; They came after

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  Realms of Meaning

  An Introduction to Semantics

  • Thomas R. Hofmann(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  1 After a Preposition, however, one may well need to stop and think of what nouns or adjectives to say next, and languages that use Prepositions generally allow this by treating them as separatable words.

  Besides Prepositions and postpositions, the only other common way to show a noun’s function is with ‘case’ as in German above, Latin, Russian and Old English (I:me, he:him are remnants of a complete case system). These are like postpositions except that instead of being behind the whole nominal phrase they are generally suffixed on to the nouns and adjectives in the nominal. Worse, for the foreign learner at least, is that they often have different forms for various genders, as well as for nouns and adjectives. This is not necessary, however. Languages such as Finnish, Eskimo, Hungarian and Turkish have easily learned cases.

  What is true of Prepositions, then, is roughly true of postpositions and cases, and in fact, cases often double up with Prepositions, just as Prepositions like to can double up with other Prepositions, in e.g., into, on to.

  Showing locations and limits of events

  Prepositions are also commonly used in referring to things by their locations, as in ‘the book on the table’ or ‘the ride to Banbury Cross’. In English, as in most languages, these same Prepositions are used for showing where something happened. It is easiest to begin here where the Prepositions can combine with elementary verbs like to be, to go to make simple sentences whose meanings can be explored in detail. The table below gives an array of these basic Prepositions.

  The locative Prepositions [Loc] in the first column are used to describe the location of something by means of some object (at), or as being on its surface (on), or being inside it (in). It is hard to give a meaning to at that is as specific, for it is the ‘unmarked’ term (Chapter 2

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  Norwegian: A Comprehensive Grammar

  • Philip Holmes, Hans-Olav Enger(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 7

  Prepositions

  7.1  Introduction

  7.1.1  Prepositions and their meaning

  7.1.1.1

  Prepositions describe relations; they often locate one entity (a ‘participant’) relative to another (a ‘landmark’) in space. For example, in Kari ligger i senga, ‘Kari is in bed’, the Preposition i, ‘in’ describes the relation between Kari and senga, ‘the bed’ – she is located relative to the landmark, the bed. In Knut sitter ved det gamle spisebordet, ‘Knut is sitting at the old dining-table’, ved, ‘at’ describes the relation between Knut and det gamle spisebordet.

  7.1.1.2

  However, things are often not so simple. Prepositions can involve temporal relations; locating events in time, as in Kari synger i kveld, ‘Kari is singing tonight’; Beate kommer om åtte dager, ‘Beate will come in eight days’. They can involve more complex abstract relations, as in Arve er glad i Kari, ‘Arve is fond of Kari’; Siri var sint på Unni, ‘Siri was angry with Unni’. In such examples, it may be hard to explain the choice of Prepositions, precisely because the relation is more abstract. Why should Norwegians say glad i, sint på, when the English say ‘fond of’, ‘angry with’? Such questions are difficult; the use of Prepositions is a stumbling block in learning many foreign languages. Still, some Prepositions are extremely frequent, and that means that it is sensible to spend some time on learning some central patterns. Also, Norwegian is a language where location and position matters. This shows not only in the posture verbs (cf. 5.3.4.2(b), 5.8.2), but also in Prepositional usage. There are more compound Prepositions in Norwegian than in English, and they are used more frequently.

  7.1.2  Morphology

  Prepositions are not inflected; they are indeclinable. Prepositions can be morphologically simplex, such as i, ‘in’, på, ‘on’, and the most frequent ones are. They can also be morphologically complex, such as utenfor, ‘outside of’, cf. ute and for, innenfra, ‘from the inside’ cf. inne, ‘in’ and fra, ‘from’, cf. 7.4 below and 11.2.2.16. However, the term Preposition also commonly covers multi-word units such as i stedet for, ‘in place of’, ‘instead of’, på grunn av lit. ‘on grounds of’, ‘because’. While these are not words, but groups of words, they fulfil the same function as single-word Prepositions, and they are dealt with in 7.5 below. Compare Boka blir ferdig om fire uker, ‘The book will be finished in four weeks’ vs. Boka blir ferdig i løpet av fire uker, ‘The book will be finished within four weeks’. Some Prepositional word groups can even be discontinuous, e.g. for … siden, ‘ago’: Det var for tre dager siden

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  English Grammar

  A University Course

  • Angela Downing(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  on ) – in the most basic use. Further uses can then be explained as modifications of the basic image schema, as these mental pictures are perceived and derived from our experience of the world.
• Many basic patterns of spatial location are carried over to time relations, such as in the house, in November, in 1492 , and to ordinary metaphorical uses which form part of our daily interaction (in love, in time, in pain ).