The first english language faculty the department of english phonetics and phonology

1.2 The characteristic features of prepositional phrases
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus a nominal group, for example; on the burning deck. We have explained a preposition as a minor verb. On the interpersonal dimension it functions as a minor predicator having a nominal group at its complement; so as we saw above in, this is felt to be essentially no different from the complement of full predicator – prepositional complements increasingly tend to have the same potential for becoming subject, as in:
The floor shouldn’t be walked on for a few days. (A. Sillitoe’s “Key to the door”
No doubt one reason for this tendency has been the lexical unity of phrasal verbs, referred to because look up to is a single lexical item, with a one word near synonym admire, it is natural to parallel people have always looked up to.
Thus the internal structure of across the lake is like that of crossing the lake with a non finite verb as a predicator. In some instances there is a non finite verb that is more or less interchangeable with preposition. Example: near/ adjoining the house/ without/ not wearing a hat; about/ concerning the trial. There is fact an area of overlap between prepositional phrases so non finite clauses; some instances can be interpreted as either so some non finite verb from can be classified as prepositions. In principle, a non finite clause implies a potential subject. Whereas a prepositional phrase does not; but the prevalence of so called “hanging participles” shows that this constraint is not always taken very seriously¹³. More significant is the fact that non finite clauses are they can be expsoed to include other elements of clause structure, where as prepositional phrases can not. Likewise on the experiential dimension the preposition functions as a minor process. The nominal group corresponds in function to one or other of participants range, boal, or attribute though without any very clear distinction among them. ¹⁴
Prepositional phrase are phrases not groups they have no logical structure as mead so modifier, can not be reduced to a single element. In this respect they are like clause rather than like groups. As regards its own function a prepositional phrase occurs either as adjunct in a clause or as qualifier in a nominal group; on the radio.
I heard good news on the radio.
The news on the radio was good. (A. Sillitoe’s “Key to the door”)
As adjunct it may also occur initially as marked theme. The expection is prepositional phrases with of, which normally occur only in function; the reason is that they are not typical prepositional phrases, because in most of its contexts of use of is functioning not as minor process/predicator but rather as a structure marker in the nominal group.
Prepositions are not a sub class of adverbials; functionally they are related to verbs. But they from groups by modification, in the same way as conjunctions: e.g. right behind, not without, all along. Again here are more complex forms such as in front of, for the sake of, which can be left unanalyzed. There are also subject to modification as in just for the sake of immediately in front of. It is important to make a distinction between a preposition group such as right behind or immediately in front of which is modifier mead structure expsoed from so functionally equivalent to a preposition so a prepositional phrase. This is not expansion of anything but a clause like structure in which the process predicator function is preformed by a preposition so not by a verb. Prepositional phrases are discussed lately¹⁵.
The term "inversion" has sometimes been used to denote an unusual position of a secondary part of the sentence, that is, of an object or an adverbial modifier. That, however, is undesirable, since it might lead to misunderstsoings so seriously hamper the study of word order. To illustrate our point, let us compare the following two sentences: This he knew very well, so, A pretty paradise did we build for ourselves. (THACKERAY, quoted by Poutsma) In both sentences the object stsos at the beginning, which is not its usual place. After this, in the first sentence, come the subject so the predicate in their normal order for a declarative sentence, whereas in the second sentence the predicate comes before the subject. It is natural to say that in the first sentence there is no inversion, while in the second sentence there is one. Now, if we were to use the term "inversion" for every case of the object occupying an unusual place, we should have to say that in the first sentence also there is inversion in some sense, which would certainly lead to confusion. ' We will therefore not apply the term "inversion" to a secondary part of the sentence.
It is well known that the usual place of the object is after the predicate, so if there are two objects in a sentence, their order is fixed: if they are both non-prepositional, the indirect object comes first so the direct object next; if one of the objects is prepositional, it comes after the non-prepositional. The tendency to place the object immediately after the predicate verb should not however be taken as an absolute law. Some other part of the sentence often does come in between the predicate verb so its object. This intervening phrase will probably in most cases be a loose part of the sentence, as in the following extracts: At the age of eight Ferdinsoo was so large so so exuberantly healthy that his parents decided, though reluctantly, to send him to school. (HUXLEY) In the visitors' book at Crome Ivor had left, according to his invariable custom in these cases, a poem. (Idem) In the former example the phrase though reluctantly introduces some shade of meaning, weakening the effect of the verb decided, so it could not conveniently come at any other place in the sentence. In the latter example the rather extended phrase according to his invariable custom in these cases might have come between the subject Ivor so the predicate had left. The sentence would then run like this: In the visitors' book at Crome Ivor, according to his invariable custom in these cases, had left a poem. The effect of the original text, with the loose part separating the object from the predicate, appears to be that of postponing the mention of the poem so thus creating some tension since the words immediately following the predicate fail to make clear what it was that he left in the visitors' book.
An object may also be separated from the predicate by several intervening elements of the sentence. This is the case, for example, in the following passage: He recognized suddenly in every face that passed him the reflection of what appeared a similar, lonely, speechless concern not with the station so the mechanics of arriving, departing, meeting someone, or saying good-bye, but with something more vital still so far beneath such minor embassies. (BUECHNER) Owing to the adverbial modifier suddenly so the prepositional object with the attributive clause belonging to it, in every face that passed him, the direct object the reflection (with the other parts of the sentence belonging to it) is at a considerable distance from the predicate recognized. However, no misunderstsoing is to be feared here, as there is no other noun that might be taken for the direct object in the main clause: the only noun that does come in here is the noun face, but it is too obviously connected with the preposition in that introduces it (along with its attribute every) to be taken for a direct object. This example, so many others of a similar kind, show that the principle "the object is bound to come immediately after the predicate verb" does not always hold good.
Quite the same sort of thing is seen in our next example, taken from the same novel: He seemed to see in each figure that hurried by a kind of indifference to all but some secret, unexpressed care having little to do with their involving context. (BUECHNER) Besides the role of rheme -that belongs to the object in the sentence, there is another factor which may have been responsible for the order of words: the group centred around the object kind (or kind of indifference) is rather long, so placing it immediately after the predicate, before the phrase m each figure that hurried by, would result in a rather awkward rhythmical pattern of the sentence.¹⁶
A non-prepositional object can be separated from the predicate even by two secondary parts, as in the following example: She arose so turned on a lamp to read the letter again. He told so told well in it a little story. (BUECHNER) Here both the adverbial modifier well so the prepositional object in it intervene between the predicate so the non-prepositional object.
When we discuss the concept of meaning different types of word meaning so the changes they undergo in the course of the historical development of the English language. When anlysing the semantic structure of the words we observe, however, that words as a rule are units of single meaning. Monosemantic words, i.e. words having only one meaning are comparatively few in number, these are mainly scientific terms such as: hydrogen, molecule an the like. The bulk of the English words are polysemantic, that is to say they posses more than one meaning of the commonly used words ranges from five to about a hundred.
The number of words denoting time is very numerous in the English language, so we want to give semantic of the frequently used words. when we deal with the words denoting time, we must look through the semantic structure of the word “time” which is considered to be the dominant among the lexical field of first of course. So in new English dictionaries the following meanings of polysemantic word “time” are given:
Time/ n 1 [u] the quantity that is measured in minutes, hours, days, years etc.
Aunt Polly tried to define the relationship between space so time.
Time seemed to pass more quickly than before
2 [singular/u] the hours, minutes etc. as shown on a clock.
- do you know what time it is?