Brief contents of the course

XXIV. Functional parts of speech. Preposition

The prepositions express the relations between words in a sentence. They don’t have their own lexical meaning or independent function in the sentence, but they are a most important element of the structure. In English they are one of the main means of expressing relations between nouns and other part of the sentence. Prepositions of place even express extralingustic relations, like notional parts of speech – on the table-under the table -.
The preposition connects words in such patterns as: “noun+preposition+noun”, “adjective+preposition+noun”, “verb+preposition+noun”. What predicts the use of this or that preposition? Sometimes it is the preceding word: depend on, interested in. In these cases the connection between the preposition and the preceding word is stronger than the connection with the following word, and usually this noun is an object, but if the connection with the following word is stronger – is under the table, rises in the morning – the noun is the adverbial modifier.
The preposition express various relations – place, time, cause etc. and are the only means of expressing those relations, as there are no case inflections of nouns:
The roof of the house – showed the letter to the manager – the letter was signed by the manager – he cut the apple with a knife.
The form of the prepositions can be simple, (on, in, with), composite (without, upon) and group prepositions, or word-combinations serving as prepositions: according to, instead of, in spite of. Some prepositions are derived from participles and have the same form: concerning, regarding.
Some prepositions have the same form, as adverbs, but they are different in function: We spoke about health. – Children were running about. Across the road – put it across. Down the stairs – looked down (up, down, after, by, in, on, about, across, above).

Conjunctions

Conjunctions serve to connect words and phrases and clauses. Though they are functional words, some of them, like the prepositions, have their own lexical meaning: “He came because it was late.” And “He came though it was late.” The causal and the concessive connection between the events exist in extralinguistic reality, outside the language. As there is no difference in the grammatical structure of the two sentences, the difference lies only in the meaning of the two conjunctions.
Unlike prepositions, the use of conjunctions is never predicted by any preceding word.
There are co-ordinating (and, or, but, as well as, both…and, not only…but also, either…or, neither…nor, also, furthermore, moreover, similarly, besides) and subordinating conjunctions, classified according to the clauses they introduce: object: that, if, whether; time – after, as, as long as, as soon as, since, until (till), while, when; cause: as, because, for; condition: if, on condition, provided/providing, supposing, unless; purpose: lest, in order that; manner: as, as if, as though, so…that, such…that; comparison: as …as, not so…as, than; result: so that, therefore, thus, hence, so; concession: in spite of the fact that, despite, though, although, however, nevertheless.
On the phrase level conjunctions connect words and phrases: “Both the children and the adults enjoyed the celebration.” (co-ordinating)
On the sentence level conjunctions connect clauses of different kind (both co-ordinating and subordinating) “Hurry up or you will miss the train.” After the plane took off the hostess served the drinks.”
Sometimes subordinating conjunctions look exactly the same as prepositions or adverbs: He always comes before (after) I do. – before – conjunction; I’ll go there before dinner – preposition; I have seen this before – adverb.
The difference is in the syntactical function, and some linguists consider that this difference is not enough to classify them as different parts of speech, they offer to classify them as one class of connectives. The fact that one of them connects clauses, another expresses relations between the verb-predicate and the object, and the third functions the modifier of time of the action can be explained by different functions of the same word. But there is more logic in speaking of them as grammatical homonyms, as the most of the members of their classes are different words: During her illness – preposition, while she was ill – conjunction, I asked him, when she was ill – adverb, because it is a part of the sentence.