If only she could come!

B.Ilyish: it is a particle.

Classification

Coordinating conjuctions

Subordinating conjuctions

Structural classification

Correlative conjunctions

are pairs of conjunctions that work together to coordinate two items:

both … and, (n)either … (n)or, and not (only) … but (also)...

homonymy

But – conj. (quick but wrong)

prep. (nothing but that)

particle (went away but an hour ago)

After – prep. (after their fight)

conj. (after they fought)

Once – adv. (I've only met her once.)

conj. (Once I get him a job, he'll be fine.)

Preposition

Meaning

a preposition indicates a relation between things mentioned in a sentence and serves as a subordinative link between words:

The book is on/under/in the table.

This depends on you.

In English, the most used prepositions are of, to, in, for, on, with, as, by, at, from, …

Does the preposition have a lexical meaning?

Grammatical meaning – subordinative connector.

Slight lexical meaning: for

Beneficiary (I've got a present for you.)

Time (for two days) – cf. (since Monday)

Purpose (to use for dancing) – cf. in order to

Distance (We walked for miles.) – cf. at a mile’s distance

No reasons to reject the lexical meaning.

Specifics: it is inseparable from the function and is expressed in combination with content words.

Lat. Praeponere ‘to place in front of’

Uninflected part of speech

Links substantivized words, phrases, constructions (not clauses)

Prep + N(P)

Prep + Adv (from there, since then)

uses of English prepositional phrases (left distribution)

as a modifier to a verb

sleep throughout the winter

as a modifier to a noun

cheeses from France with live bacteria

as the complement of a verb (an object)

Insist on staying home

as the complement of a noun

an amendment to the constitution

as the complement of an adjective or adverb

attentive to their needs

as the complement of another preposition

until after supper

Syntactic status

A morpheme, making an analytical form of case

A functional word. Reasons:

has its own lexical meaning, unlike analytical forms (has done)

as many cases as prepositions?

Makes a phrase (N depends on Prep), though without a N, a Prep cannot function. The key word for the Oprep is the left el.: refer to the article

Prepositions

form a closed class of lexical items and cannot be productively derived from words of other categories.

Simple (single-word) vs complex (multi-word)

Simple prepositions

of, to, in, for, on, with, as, by, at, from

Complex prepositions

in spite of,

with respect to,

except for,

by dint of,

next to,

because of,

on behalf of

grammaticalization

An arbitrary boundary between simple and complex adpositions:

With + in -> within

by + side -> beside

A fuzzy boundary between complex adpositions and free combinations of words:

in front of

for the sake of > for your sake

instead of the teacher > in her stead

Complex prepositions?

B.A.Ilyish:

Out of, as to, instead of, in spite of are not prepositions:

Prep. is a word, not a word group.

Criteria for the Complex preposition

contains a word that cannot be used in any other context: by dint of, in lieu of.

The first preposition cannot be replaced: with a view to but not *for/without a view to

It is impossible to insert an article, or to use a different article: on *an/*the account of, for the/*a sake of

The range of possible adjectives is very limited: in great favor of, but not *in helpful favor of

The number of the noun cannot be changed: by virtue/*virtues of

It is impossible to change components: in spite of him, not *in his spite (excl.: instead of her – in her stead), *out spite of, *in spite for

adposition

An adposition is an element that, prototypically, combines syntactically with a phrase and indicates how that phrase should be interpreted in the surrounding context.

Adposition = prepositions + postpositions

from now on

Position of adpositions

Preposition stranding P-stranding

= the syntactic construction in which a preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately next to its object. (The preposition is then described as stranded or hanging.)

In English, preposition stranding is commonly found in three types of constructions:

Wh-questions,

pseudopassives, and

relative clauses.

Preposition stranding

Wh-questions

Pseudopassives (adverbial and prepositional passive constructions)

relative clause

What are you talking about?

This chair was sat on. The article is often referred to.

This is the book (that) I told you about.

avoidance of stranded prepositions =>

incredibly artificial, unnatural-sounding:.

This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put. (attributed, probably falsely, to Winston Churchill)

Semantic classification (incomplete)

spatial relations: location (inclusion, exclusion, proximity), direction (origin, path, endpoint)

temporal relations

comparison: equality, opposition, price, rate

content: source, material, subject matter

agent

instrument, means, manner

cause, purpose

reference

in the bag

to the cinema

in the daytime

like a log, per hour

from silk

by the wind

with a knife

for dancing

as for my future

Semantic classification

Local

Temporal

Grammatical

Logical

Criticism

Polysemy of prepositions:

Loss of lexical meaning

dispense with formalities, listen to my advice, good at mathematics

Polysemy

Place: My mother was in the kitchen.

Direction: He almost drowned when he fell in the river.

Manner: The title was printed in capital letters.

Time: Shaw first visited Russia in 1927.

Period: I'll be with you in a minute.

Whole: How many minutes are there in an hour?

….

23. (LED)

Classification by complement

noun :

adjective and adjective phrase:

adverb:

gerund or gerundial

phrase:

verbal construction:

Infinitive clause:

It was on the table.

The scene went from blindingly bright to pitch black.

I worked there until recently.

Let's think about solving this problem.

For Sammy to become president, they'd have to seriously modify the Constitution.

We can't agree on whether to have children or not.

Overlaps with other categories

Adverbs

Particles

Conjunctions

under the ground/underground

aboard (the plane)

look out, come to

before the end of the summer / before the summer ended

Modal word

Modal adverb;

Sentence adverbial

Lat. Modus ‘measure, mode, manner’

Express subjective evaluation of the speaker towards a state of affairs.

Evaluation concerns

Degree of reality (probably, hopefully, possibly),

Emotional aspects (luckily, unfortunately)

Function

Sentence adverbial modifying the whole sentence: Hopefully, I'll be back home by ten o'clock.