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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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
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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
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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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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
718 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 ...
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1answer
79 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 ...
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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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389 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
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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 ...
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3answers
191 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
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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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1answer
841 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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4answers
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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
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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 ...
