Contents introduction chapter I prepositional phrases and their use

Prepositional Phrases Function As Adjectives or Adverbs

Here are some more examples of prepositional phrases. In each example, the prepositional phrase is shaded with the preposition in bold. Be aware that prepositional phrases function as adjectives or adverbs.

Prepositional phrases functioning as adjectives:
A prepositional phrase that modifies a noun or a pronoun is called an adjective phrase.

• 
  Please read the message from Alexandra.
  

(The prepositional phrase describes the noun message.)

• 
  The man on the radio has an interesting voice.
  

(The prepositional phrase describes the noun man.)

• 
  May I see one of the black ones?
  

(The prepositional phrase describes the pronoun one.)
Prepositional phrases functioning as adverbs:
A prepositional phrase that modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb is called an adverb phrase. Adverb phrases tell when, where, why, how, or to what extent.

• 
  Susan caught a small mackerel with utmost pride.
  

(The prepositional phrase modifies the verb caught. It is an adverb of manner; i.e., it tells us how he caught it.)

• 
  Before the exam, he reread all units.
  

(The prepositional phrase modifies the verb read. It is an adverb of time; i.e., it tells us when he reread.)

• 
  John is tired from the hike.
  

(The prepositional phrase modifies the verb is. It is an adverb of reason; i.e., it tells us why he is tired.)

• 
  John lives in that appartment.
  

(The prepositional phrase modifies the verb lives. It is an adverb of place; i.e., it tells us where he lives.)
Tom is pouring water in the jug.
This is an ordinary sentence that certainly has a clear meaning. But when we analyze it in terms of the usual formal logic of relations and operations on relations, the ordinary logic ends up with the inference that Tom is in the jug, which is clearly not meant to be a valid consequence of the sentence. The difficulty is that the prepositional phrase locates the action denoted by the main verb phrase and does not spatially locate where the subject of the sentence is, that is, where Tom is. So, if we try to analyze this sentence in terms of just the natural context-free semantics for noun phrases, verb phrases and the obvious extension of a verb phrase to prepositional phrases, we cannot get out of this difficulty. It is clear that the models used must be made richer in structure than arbitrary relational structures, which is the workhorse of the model theory ordinarily associated with the semantics of context-free languages.
Three obvious production or parsing context-free rules for prepositional phrases are the following:
(1) PP → Prep + NP Maria ran to the house,
where to the house is the prepositional phrase, and the house is the noun phrase (NP). The noun phrase is referred to as the complement of the preposition. The second rule permits an adjective phrase (AdjP) to be a prepositional complement.
(2) PP → Prep + AdjP She worked for little, but liked it.
However, “standardly” prepositional complements are noun phrases, and much more rarely adjective phrases. More common, but still not standard, are clausal complements of prepositions, with and without that.
(3) PP → Prep + (that) + Clause. I left before he did.
Here the clause he did is the complement of the preposition before. The use of that is much more restricted, but here is an example, I left provided that she stayed.
The use of prepositions can vary greatly between languages, even between two variants of a single language such as American English and British English. The complex prepositions are also called phrasal verbs, prepositional idioms or prepositional patterns because they are collective and most times a change in the preposition completely alters the meaning of the construction¹⁸. When a word phrase or expression is peculiar to a given language and can not be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, it is called ‘idiomatic.’ Because idioms (idiomatic word patterns) can not be deduced from a general knowledge of the words and their meaning, we need to simply memorize them. For native speakers of the language, this process usually happens unconsciously: certain word patterns just sound right. Non-native speakers may have to work at mastering idioms. Here are some common prepositional idioms of American English:
Round off - to end
Round on - to attack verbally
Round about - encircle
Round up - put together
accords with - to be the same as something, or to agree with something
according to - as stated by
based on - If you base something on facts or ideas, you use those facts or ideas to develop it
capable of - having the ability, power or qualities to be able to do something
dependent on - influenced or decided by something
familiar with - to know something or someone well
opposed to - to disagree with a principle or plan
related to - to be connected to, or to be about someone or something