The document discusses various topics related to prepositions in English including their basic characteristics, lexical compounding, co-occurrences with verbs and adjectives, deletion of prepositions under certain conditions, meanings of spatial and non-spatial prepositions, meaning extensions of spatial prepositions, semantic case functions, variation in use, use in discourse, phrasal verbs including their syntactic analysis and features, distinguishing phrasal verbs from verb+preposition combinations, productivity and idiomaticity of phrasal verbs, semantic categories of phrasal verbs, use of nonreferential it and there as subjects including their meanings and uses, and use of there in oral and written discourse.

1. PREPOSITIONS
JAYSON F. CELADIÑA

2. •Basic Characteristics
• English prepositions are free
morphemes, not bounded with
inflectional affixes – they precede the
noun .
• They are followed by NPs
• They do not necessarily represent a
single word

3. •Basic Characteristics
• The other phrase structure rules that are relevant to
our discussion of the form of prepositions are the
ones that demonstrate that prepositional phrases
follow copular verbs and certain verbs and transitive
adjectives, where they are needed to complete the
VP and AP, respectively.

4. •Lexical Compounding

5. •Co-occurrences
With Verbs With Adjectives

6. •Co-occurrences
• With Nouns

7. •Deletion of Prepositions
• Obligatory
• When the temporal noun phrase contains
a determiner used deictically or when the
head noun of the noun phrase contains
before, after, next, last or this as part of its
meaning.

8. •Deletion of Prepositions
• Obligatory
• When the temporal noun phrase contains
a universal qualifier like every or all.
• Ex. We stayed in Provo (*for) all week.
• when a locative noun, such as home or
downtown, or the adverbs here and there
are used with a verb of motion or direction
• Ex. We went (*to) home.

9. •Deletion of Prepositions
• When for expresses a span of time
• Ex. We have lived here (for ) 12 years.
• When on is used before days of the
week
• Ex. He bought a new pair of shoes you
(on) Friday night.
• In response to questions that would
que temporal use of in, at, on, or for
• Ex. When do you wake up? (at) 6 A.M.

10. •Meaning of Prepositions
• [They] are indeed polysemous (Taylor, 1993)

11. •Meaning of Prepositions
• They are used in locating objects in space.
• At denotes place of orientation.
• Ex. Meet me at the corner.
• On denotes physical contact between trajector
and landmark, neccesitating viewing the
landmark as a one-dimentional or two-
dimentional space.
• Ex. Don’t sit on the desk.
• In denotes the enclosure of the trajector in the
landmark. Therefore, views the landmark 2 or 3-
dimentinal space.
• Ex. She is in the room

12. •Meaning of Prepositions
• From, off, and out involve the notion
of separation from place.
• From denotes separation from a point of
orientation.
• Ex. He took it from me.
• Off denotes separation from the contact
with line or surface.
• Ex. The vase fell off the table.
• Out denotes separation from inside of a
landmark.
• Ex. The water spilled out of the vase.

13. •Meaning of Prepositions
• By and with are the proximity prepositions.
• By denotes the idea of connection.
• Ex. Doug lives by me.
• With denotes both a point of orientation and
the idea of connection but may do so in a
more abstract way to mean association and/or
accompaniment. In its spatial sense, it can
occur only with animate nouns as a landmark.
• Ex. He walks with me to school.

14. •Meaning of Prepositions

15. •Meaning Extensions of Spatial
Prepositions

16. •Meaning Extensions of Spatial Prepositions

17. •The Meaning of Nonspatial Prepositions

18. •The Meaning of Nonspatial Prepositions
• Three definitions of “of” (Thompson,
1992)
• Concerning: about
• They told of her heroism.
• Derived or coming from (X of Y)
• The President of the Philippines
• Having (Y of X)
• A mother of two

19. •Semantic of Case
• Fillmore, 1968

20. •Reviewing Semantically Related Case
Functions
• Dative, benefactive, and eliciting –
these are all associated with indirect
objects.
• Ex. I mailed the package to my pen pal.
• Dative and ablative

21. •Reviewing Semantically Related Case
Functions
• Joining with and separating of
• The cashier filled my bag with groceries
• Agentive (by) and instrumental (with)
the passives
• The window was broken by Bruce

22. •The Use of Prepositions
• Variation in Use

23. •Prepositions in Discourse

24. Phrasal verbs

26. •Syntactic analysis of phrasal verbs

27. •Syntactic analysis of phrasal verbs
• The PV category is then expanded
in a new phrase structure rule as a
verb and particle
• Ex. Jamie turned out the light.

28. •Syntactic analysis of phrasal verbs
• Jamie turned the light out.

29. •Syntactic Features of Phrasal Verbs
• Like single-word verb, phrasal verbs
can be transitive:
• Ex. Harold turned on the radio
• Phrasal verbs can also be
intransitive:
• Ex. My car broke down.

30. •Phrasal Verbs that Require
Prepositions
• In these expressions the phrasal verb
and preposition must be learned as a
unit.

31. • Donna broke up with Joe.

32. •The Separability of Phrasal Verbs

33. •The Separability of Phrasal Verbs

34. • Angela ran across a classmate.

35. •PV that are always Separated
• A few PV seem to occur only with
the verb and particle separated:

37. •Distinguishing PVs from Verb + Prep
• Only prepositions allow:
• Adverb Insertion
• We turned quickly off the light.
• Phrase fronting
• Up the hill John ran
• Wh-fronting
• About what does he write?

38. •Distinguishing PVs from Verb + Prep
• Only particles in separable phrasal
verbs allow
• Passivization
• The light was turned off.
• Verb substitution
• The light was extinguished
• NP insertion
• We turned the light off

39. • Can you put the object noun between the verb and “P”?
• Can you front the “P” in a wh-
question?

41. •The Productivity and idiomaticity of PVs

42. •Semantic Categories of PV
• Literal PVs – comprised of verbs that appear to be a
combination of a verb and a directional PrepP.
• ex,. Sit down, take down, fall down, etc.
• Aspectual PVs – the meaning is not as transparent,
but it is not idiomatic either. This category consists of
verbs to which certain particles contribute
consistent aspectual meaning. This category in turn
can be subdivided into a number of semantic
classes, depending on the semantic contribution of
the particle.

43. •Aspectual PVs Classes
• Inceptive (to signal a beginning state)
• Ex. John took off.
• Continuative (to show that the action
continues)

44. •Aspectual PVs Classes

45. •Idiomatic PVs

46. •The Use of PVs
• REGISTER
• Level of Formality
• Field
• The Issue of Phrasal Verb Separability
• Principle of Dominance
• Sentences with Separable PVs, Direct
Object and Indirect Objects

47. Nonreferential It and There as
Subjects

48. •Nonreferential IT
• Meaning

49. •Nonreferential IT

50. •Nonreferential IT
• Use

51. •Nonreferential IT

52. •Nonreferential THERE
• Form

53. •Nonreferential THERE

54. •Nonreferential THERE

59. •The use of the Indefinite Determiner
with the Logical Subject

60. •Meaning of Nonreferntial THERE

61. •Use of Nonreferential THERE
• A. There is pen on the table.
• B. A pen is on the table.

63. •Various Uses of THERE
• Presentational use
• There are several alternatives. We could go shopping
first, then…
• Locative use
• There are several books on the table.
• Ontological use
• There exist five prime numbers below twelve

68. •THERE in oral Discourse

69. •THERE in Written Discourse
• Huckin and Pesante (1988)
• Ahlers (1991)

70. • Ahlers (1991)

72. • THANK YOU!