Questions tagged [prepositions]
A class of words denoting temporal or spatial relations or other semantic roles. They are placed before the noun phrase they modify.
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questions
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Why can 'notwithstanding' be positioned before or after the object without changing meaning?
Please explain 'notwithstanding', only in terms of the adverb 'not' and the root verb 'withstand'.
[ Grammarist: ] Notwithstanding is mainly a preposition meaning in spite of. Most dictionaries also ...
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0answers
357 views
Preposition vs. Subordinating Conjunction in English
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum), which was published in 2002, expanded the scope of the part of speech "preposition" to such a great extent that a significant ...
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1answer
230 views
Why do Spanish and other Romance Languages use the preposition "a" for culinary styles?
I've looked in the Real Academia Española dictionary and I can't find any information regarding why Spanish uses the preposition a for cooking styles, and I've noticed French and Italian do it too. I ...
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2answers
148 views
The complement of postmodifying prepositional phrases compounded by "and"
How does one parse "the need for and development of education"? "Education" naturally acts as the complement of both the prepositions "for" and "of", and the prepositions surely postmodify the nouns ...
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0answers
197 views
When do you use 'in' vs 'by' when talking about payments and transactions [closed]
When talking about buying things and making payments for them etc... what context would you use "in" vs"by" when referring to the payment. For example...
She paid by credit card. (felicitous)
She ...
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3answers
733 views
What motivates / allows preposition stranding in English, but disallows it in other languages, like Mandarin?
If someone could direct me to papers/sites that describe this, and a summary or something, that would be great.
It is just a parameter for languages? What do linguists think so far?
Example:
"Which ...
3
votes
1answer
80 views
What aspect or feature do "over TIME" constructions have?
I have been searching around but as far as I can tell there is no established name for the aspect demonstrated by sentences such as:
"I'll read this report over the weekend."
"The debt has ...
1
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0answers
133 views
Given that Tok Pisin has only two prepositions, how does it express a range of relations? [duplicate]
A recent question discussing minimal sets of prepositions gained an answer that that Tok Pisin, the English-based creole used as national language and lingua franca of Papua New Guinea has only two ...
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1answer
402 views
Minimal set of prepositions
How many and which prepositions do you need to express everything that prepositions can express.
In "Alice goes under the line" and "Alice goes over the line" you could solve both cases with the ...
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1answer
177 views
What are the terms for a) the constituent before a preposition and b) the constituent after a preposition?
Consider phrases such as these:
"Joe from France"
"Transport of wheat"
"Walking to Berlin
Are there specific grammatical terms for a) the constituent that occurs immediately before a preposition ...
3
votes
3answers
193 views
What makes the "an" a determiner in one situation and a preposition in another in English?
The "an" word is usually a determiner: I will be ready in an hour.
It can also be used as a preposition with the meaning of "per": My rate is $10 an hour.
How can I tell in each particular situation ...
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3answers
310 views
Did the Greek adverb for "late" evolve into a preposition meaning "after"?
The Greek work opse meant late in Homer. By the time of Philostratus (3rd c. A.D.) it sometimes had the meaning of too late. Of course, if someone arrives too late for an event, they arrive "after" ...
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votes
1answer
844 views
Term for the modified part of a prepositional complement
A prepositional complement is the noun phrase that follows a preposition. So, given sentences like
John saw the woman with an umbrella.
and
John saw the moon with a telescope.
The ...
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votes
4answers
2k views
Indo-European prepositions: why prepositions?
In a related but different question to Indo-European prepositions: whence did they come?, why do just about all modern Indo-European languages have prepositions rather than postpositions?
PIE is ...
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5answers
2k views
How usual is it for languages to have both prepositions and postpositions?
It has seemed to me (though I might be wrong) that languages usually take either prepositions (English, German, Spanish) or postpositions (Japanese, Hungarian, Turkish). (Yes I know sometimes a ...
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