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PREPOSITIONS (prepositions.doc)

 

 

 

Prepositions cannot be distinguished by any formal features. A list of prepositions will illustrate this point:  
 

across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to, under, with, without 

We can, say, however, that prepositions typically come before a noun:  
 
 

across town  after class  at home  before Tuesday  by Shakespeare

for lunch  in London  on fire  to school  with pleasure

  The noun does not necessarily come immediately after the preposition, however, since determiners and adjectives can intervene:  
 

after the storm   on white horses   under the old regime 

Whether or not there are any intervening determiners or adjectives, prepositions are almost always followed by a noun. In fact, this is so typical of prepositions that if they are not followed by a noun, we call them "stranded" prepositions:  

 

 

Preposition

Stranded Preposition

John talked about the new film 

This is the film John talked about

 

Prepositions are invariable in their form, that is, they do not take any inflections.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complex Prepositions

 

The prepositions which we have looked at so far have all consisted of a single word, such as in, of, at, and to. We refer to these as SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS.  

COMPLEX PREPOSITIONS consist of two- or three-word combinations acting as a single unit. Here are some examples:      

according to  along with  apart from  because of  contrary to

due to  except for  instead of  prior to  regardless of

Like simple prepositions, these two-word combinations come before a noun: 

according to Shakespeare  contrary to my advice  due to illness 

Three-word combinations often have the following pattern:  
 

Simple Preposition + Noun + Simple Preposition 

We can see this pattern in the following examples:      

in aid of  on behalf of   in front of  in accordance with  in line with

in line with  in relation to  with reference to  with respect to  by means of

Again, these combinations come before a noun:

in aid of charity  in front of the window  in line with inflation 

 

 

 

 

 

Marginal Prepositions

A number of prepositions have affinities with other word classes. In particular, some prepositions are verbal in form:  

Following his resignation, the minister moved to the country  I am writing to you regarding your overdraft  The whole team was there, including John 

We refer to these as MARGINAL PREPOSITIONS. Other marginal prepositions include:

concerning, considering, excluding, given, granted, pending 

Non-verbal marginal prepositions include worth (it's worth ten pounds) and minus (ten minus two is eight).  

 

 

 

 

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