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English prepositions are words – such as of, in, on, at, from, etc. – that function as the head of a prepositional phrase, and most characteristically license a noun phrase object (e.g., in the water).[1] Semantically, they most typically denote relations in space and time.[2] Morphologically, they are usually simple and do not inflect.[1] They form a closed lexical category.[3][4]
Many of the most common of these are grammaticalized and correspond to case markings in languages such as Latin.[5]: 48 For example, of typically corresponds to the genitive.
- ^ a b Aarts, Bas; Chalker, Sylvia; Weiner, Edmund (2014). The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (Second ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-174444-0.
- ^ Leech, Geoffrey (2006). Glossary of English Grammar. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-2691-5.
- ^ Matthews, Peter (2003). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199202720.
- ^ This article chiefly addresses prepositions in Modern English.
- ^ Bain, Alexander (1863). An English Grammar. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. OCLC 229915428.