1. THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
GROUP 05:
Trần Thị Ngọc
Doãn Thúy Oanh
Mai Thị Thu Trang
Nguyễn Hoàng Yến
Thai Nguyen, 11th Sep., 2013

2. PREPOSITONS AND
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
Outline:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Definition
Structure
Syntactic functions of PP
Exercises & homework

3. Startup exercise:
Fill in the dash:
1. I am afraid
being sick.
2. she is interested
the
game.
3. I am grateful
her.
4.
sight,
mind.
5. we are very worried
our tests.

4. Startup exercise:
Answer key:
1. I am afraid of
being sick.
2. she is interested
in the
game.
3. I am grateful
to
her.
4. out of sight, out of mind.
5. we are very worried about our
tests.

5. I. Definition
1. Def. OF PREPOSITION
-Def. :
A word (one of the parts of speech and a
member of a closed word class) that shows the
relationship between a noun or pronoun and other
words in a sentence.
- Types:
+ simple : a word
Eg: in, on at …
+complex: >=2 words Eg: out of, along with, up to,
….
-

6. 2. Def. OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
-Def. : A Prepositional Phrase consits of a preposition
followed by a prepositional complement, which is
characteristically a NP or a wh-clause or V-ing clause.
- Eg:
PP
PP
in
the garden
(believe) in what you say
prep.
prep. NP( complement)
clause(complement)
Wh-
PP
( keen) on
prep.
playing football.
V-ing clause( complement)

7. II. Structure
PP= Prep.( the head) + prepositional
Complement
simple
NP
wh- interrogation clause(wh-
question)
complex
wh- relative clause
V-ing – clause
wh-clause
that-clause
Note: complex prep.
- adv or prep+ pre: along with, as for, out of, up to, …
- v/ adj/ conjunction/… : owing to, due to, thanks to, because of, ….
- prep+ n+ pre:
in front of, in spite of, by means of,
in comparision with

8. Examples: slide5
 At which house is he staying?
Prep.
wh-interrogation clause(wh-question)
About what are they talking?

The book about which I talked is very famous.
prep.

Relative clause
in there , until now. ( now and there are Adv Phrases)

9. Preposition within a sentence.

Before its complement

In some cases, prep. stands after.
Wh-question
relative clause
famous.
wh-clause
Phrase.
Exclamation
which school did you study at?
The book which I talked about is very
+ prep. What I’ll talk about is functions of prep.
passives
what a mess he has got into!
He was punished after by all the mistakes he had
made.
infinitive clause
She is possible to work with.

10. Exercise:
Underline prepositional phrase(s) in the
following sentences:
The ship sunk quickly on Tuesday.
2. I usually have dinner with my parents at a
restaurant on my birth’s day.
1.
3.
To my thought, Johnson might go down with liver
cancer for a long time.
Under any circumstances, she always keep
calm.
5. I was very lazy at studying and I ,as a result,
failed the final exam.
4.

11. III. Syntactic functions of PP
Prepositional Phrase acts as
NP post-modifier,
NP Complement,
AdjP Complement,
AdvP Complement,
Adjunct Advbial,
Disjunct Advbial.

12. 1. PP as NP modifier
PP acts as post-modifier of a NP.
Eg:
The puppy with the blue and white fur
NP
PP
PP modifies the NP.
An old man with glasses.
someone for whom the bell tolls.

13. 2. PP as a NP
Complementation
PP acts as a NP Complement. It
completes the meaning of the NP.
Eg :
passion for reading
love of singing
fear of mice
latest edition of this book.

14. 3. PP as an AdjP
complementation
Keen on bananas
AdjP
PP
Fond of comic
adjP
PP
Afraid of the darkness.
adjP
PP

15. 4. PP as VP complentation
PP, as VP complementation, completes the
meaning of the VP.
Eg:
Rely on my husband
VP
PP
Listen to the music
VP
PP
Approve of my plan
VP
PP

16. 5. PP as Adjunct Advbial
Adjunct modifies an entire clause.
Eg:
The children waited in line.
The couple is walking their dog along the
beach.
She failed the test because of her illness.

17. 6. PP as Disjunct Advbial
Disjunct Advbial provides additional
information to frame of an entire clause.
Eg:
In my opinion, learning about grammar is fun.
For the love of goodness, the children need to
stop whining.
With all due respect, you need to calm down

18. IV. Exercise.
Identify each PP in the sentences below, and
indicate its function.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The students at the hospital were fond of practical
jokes
In spite of his illness, he tried to complete his own
performance.
The girl with long blond hair and glasses is Linda.
The children insisted on eating candies before their
lunch.
He always has a desire of becoming an excellent pilot.

19. Answer key
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
At the hospital=>post modifier of NP “ the student”
of practical jokes=> complementation of an adj “ fond”
in spite of his illness=> disjunct
With long blond hair and glasses=> post-modifier of NP “
the girl”
On eating candies=> complementation of VP “ insisted…”
before their lunch=> adjunct
Of becoming an excellent pilot=> complementation of NP “ a
desire”

20. Homework:
1. Replace each underlined phrase with suitable PP. Make
some changes in the sentence if it’s necessary. There are
some clues for you below:
into a habit of
due to
for + time
in spite of
a.
b.
by means of
on + V-ing
I am used to swimming in the afternoon.
I can pass the exam because I worked very hard.
c.
Although he is a very intelligent student, he still fails to succeed.
d.
She loves watching the cartoon “ Tom and Jerry “.
e.
She went to Ho Chi Minh city a month ago.
f.
He used an umbrella to kill the cat.

22. Faculty of Foreign Languages- TNU
Some information is quoted from the website
www.linguisticsgirl.com