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' 1-} 5,1 l: 5598;» 99;; .59; 5:; 999991991: "" ‘.'“""' 3399 ':,'-'"'-r‘ ""'9':' '9 "" -"'"|'J"l"1"" ' "" ‘99-,91'9'h}'-"l9',-"If-"9}'";9 ”'9'” 9"'9 5'39'""""i}99"59"1" """" "H?" d" "J """" ,LI' 2 - 999-9-- -J ' 9" -:; J '51 9:“ W9 9'9- '};-9-_ 9992‘ "'l 9'9'9-"""'9"2"9 "J""'9" J:.""J'---"" ' " '19'9'” “99'5” "9:9" 99,} ""' 9"""" '."" "if """ %},;9}.}}9} -919{1(’t}.1} 99-.29}99'929“-29‘9::}}} '9 'Jfl'dt {919991'9-9 hub! E}- 9:53}, }}}}}}}} {99%;} '9" 9 u .9 A ',l ‘ ' }} h '9 2J- JJJ'J- "9-3-9 J '1. 6.5599 .999; 999,9- 9" Ill]Jilllily/LTJJJILIHMMII”Twill!!! ‘ JLL- . . ““3“~-.._g_.ll .“y | V 1:11313141Q )1 Mi‘ffigan State JCb'51Sl i- f” THES‘F This is to certify that the thesis entitled ENGLISH PREPOSITIONAL FORMS: A SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION FOR USE IN ADULT SECOND-LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS presented by Carol Ann Becka has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Masters dem?9in Linguistics , EM flzm Major professor Date October 30, 1978 0-7639 OVERDUE FINES: 25¢ per day per item RETURNING LIBRARY MATERIALS: ”W3 , ‘ ‘ ,-”(7;« ‘T "Wax; 1.“ ‘6‘ " ‘ w‘“ ' 1—7;” - .l-gvfiu _ ‘2‘ P ace n k return to remove ‘.yi‘ 23“!!!” '4' charge from circulation records © Copyright by CAROL ANN BECKA 1978 ii ENGLISH PREPOSITIONAL FORMS: A SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION FOR USE IN ADULT SECOND-LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS By Carol Ann Becka A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Linguistics and Oriental and African Languages 1978 6 macs/7 ABSTRACT ENGLISH PREPOSITIONAL FORMS: A SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION FOR USE IN ADULT SECOND-LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS By Carol Ann Becka Errors made by adult ESL students and student requests for informa- tion indicate that English prepositional forms are a problem area, and indicate a need for an effective presentation of information. Descriptions that are available are evaluated for usefulness on the basis of criteria defined in terms of practical classroom needs: accuracy, completeness, comprehensibility, range, generality, simplic- ity and definitional presentation. The proposed alternative description is based on the assumption that English prepositional forms are systematic and meaningful, and that spatial relationships are primary, while all other relationships are derived. Dimensionality of the object serves as a basis for cate- gorization even when the object is not overtly expressed, as does the location or motion of the non—object member of the relationship. The relationships that are expressed by prepositional forms are equivalence, non—equivalence, superiority, inferiority, approximate equivalence, ap- proaching equivalence, withdrawing from equivalence, disjunction, con- junction, reciprocity and no relationship. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the members of my guidance committee, Julia 5. Falk and Paul E. Munsell, and Barbara Abbott, the chairman of my committee. Most of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my students, for their patience with my slow and tedious process of learning about English, and for their comments and corrections, which have often steered me toward the most productive pathways. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS A PRACTICAL CLASSROOM PROBLEM: ENGLISH PREPOSITIONAL FORMS PRACTICAL CRITERIA FOR SELECTING PREPOSITIONAL MATERIALS IQ‘TIFT'IUOUJZD Accuracy Completeness Comprehensibility Range Generality Simplicity Definitional Presentation Summary and Discussion of Criteria APPLICATION OF SELECTED CRITERIA TO AVAILABLE PRESENTATIONS A. Pedagogical Presentations 1. General Presentations of English Grammatical Information Crowell Krohn Danielson and Hayden Praninskas Ebbitt and Ebbitt Klammer 'thQOO'CD Topical Presentations on English Prepositional Forms a. Heaton b. Bruton B. Theoretical Presentations 1. Pre-1960 Linguists a. Jespersen b. Fries c. Roberts Generative—Transformationalist a. Jacobs and Rosenbaum b. Langendoen c. Fraser Stratificationalist Tagmemic 5. 6. 7. Case Grammar European (Lopez) Semantics C. Summary of Examination of Available Presentations III. PROPOSED ALTERNATIVE PRESENTATION A. Framework for the Proposed System \lO‘iU‘l-DLAJNH Systematic Nature Meaningfulness Primacy of Spatial Relationships Dimensionality of the Point of Reference Opposition of Location and Motion Inclusion of Syntactically Different Forms Indications of Relationships B. Integration of Prepositional Forms into Framework 01014)me Equivalence: At, Along, On, In, Inside Non-equivalence: Away, Off, Out, Outside Superiority of Location: Above, Beyond, Over Superiority of Motion: Up, Past, Across, Through Inferiority: Below, Down, Beneath, Under Approximate Equivalence: About, Alongside, Beside(s), Around Approaching Equivalence (Location): Before, Until, In Front Of, Near Approaching Equivalence (Motion): To, Toward, Onto, Into Withdrawing from Equivalence of Location: After, Since, Behind, (Far?) Withdrawing from Equivalence of Motion: From, Away From, Off Of, Out of Disjunction: Opposite, Against Conjunction (Location): Of, By, For Conjunction (Motion): With, By, During, Throughout Reciprocity: Between, Among, Within No Relationship: Except, Apart From, Aside From, Without IV. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR EMPIRICIAL RESEARCH A. Conformity of Proposed System to Selected Criteria 01$me Accuracy Completeness Comprehensibility Range Generality Page 103 105 105 107 108 109 111 111 112 112 113 114 114 6. Simplicity 7. Definitional Presentation B. Conclusions Concerning the Proposed Alternative Presentation C. Suggestions for Empirical Research BIBLIOGRAPHY vi Page 115 116 116 117 118 Figure Figure Figure Figure 4500“) Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure TABLE OF FIGURES Classification of Prepositional Forms by Praninskas Rules for At/QQ/Ig_in Praninskas Locational Possibilities for Sobre Comparison of Desde/Hasta/Hacia Diagram of At/QQ[IQ Satisfaction of Selected Criteria by Examined Presentations Chart of Prepositional Relationships vii Page 22 23 50 51 53 55 7O INTRODUCTION A PRACTICAL CLASSROOM PROBLEM: ENGLISH PREPOSITIONAL FORMS "Flawed" production from adult second-language students gives the teacher an indication of the knowledge or lack of knowledge of the students. The following items were collected from adult students of English as a second language, having been produced by those students in free production exercises that were part of normal class activities, and in free written production for testing purposes: "When my radio announced there would not be school at MSU, all of my friends gn_the hall went crazy on the floor.” "They pushed their chair gff_the door." "I can't help you tomorrow, but I can do something tg_you." "Today acupuncture needles are made tg_steel." "All of the students have been used to writing jn_30 minutes during all term long." Somewhat elementary English prepositional forms are being misused in the sentences above: a, 911:, t_o, jg and m. This type of prob- lem in choosing the appropriate prepositional form seems to be quite common, and is a type of error that is made by otherwise-quite- proficient language learners. When students are asked to identify the areas of English grammar in which they feel they are weak, one of the most common answers is in prepositions. Many "why“ questions are asked by students about prepo- sitional forms, and the students seldom distinguish between "true" 2 prepositions and adverbial usages of prepositional forms. To a teacher, this is an indication that the students do not know how to use English prepositions and prepositional forms. If students show signs of not knowing certain forms, and they request information about those forms, it is reasonable for the teacher to assume that the infbrmation, in whatever form, that the students have had access to, has not been adequate or has not been appropriate, or both, for the students' learning needs. In order to serve these needs, the teacher must locate materials of some type that are both adequate and appro- priate, but before embarking on a search for such materials, the teach- er must have some idea of what to look for. The first step to be taken is the identification of criteria on the basis of which any available or formulated description should be evaluated. With these criteria, the adequacy and appropriateness of( a description, explanation or set of rules can be measured, and a descision can be made to accept or to reject the description, explan- ation or set of rules, for classroom use. Existing presentations of information about English prepositions and prepositional forms can be examined on the basis of these criteria, and, where they fail to meet the requirements of the criteria, new presentations can be formulated, and these new presentations can be evaluated on the basis of the same criteria. The criteria serve the prupose of predicting the likelihood that a specific description would be effective for classroom use, but the ultimate test must be empirical, so the final preparatory stage should be a determination of how the selected material--whether existent or formulated for use--could be tested empirically. 3 In the establishment of criteria, prior to the finding or fomula- ting of a presentation, one significant problem is that of determining what form it is that is being investigated. "Preposition," as a gram- matical term, generally refers to "a word which relates a substantive, its object, to some other word in the sentence" (Roberts, 1945: 222, see also Pei and Gaynor, 1967: 174; Stageberg, 1965: 155; Francis, 1958: 306; Fries, 1940: 110). A "preposition" is defined as an element that precedes a noun or a noun substitute. Most grammarians, however, admit at one point or another that "preposition-like“ words appear in other syntactic arrangements in the English language. Students are generally less precise, and group all words that appear to be the same or similar into a single category, which they generally label "prepositions." To most students, the gp_in "He climbed gp_a tree," "They blew the building up," "I climbed up," in adjectives like "an uplifting experience," in verbs like "He upended the box," or in nouns like "upstairs" (such as in "The Epstairs has recently been painted"), is really a single item, and when they attempt to refer to this item, they generally use the term "preposition." The information that is being sought, to be of value to students, must be related somehow to the students' definition based on appearance, rather than the grammarians' definition based on syntax.* In this presentation, selection criteria are presented (Chapter 1), available presentations are evaluated on the basis of these criteria (Chapter 2), an alternative presentation is proposed (Chapter 3), and this alternative proposal is evaluated on the basis of the selected criteria (Chapter 4). *In this paper, "preposition" will be used to refer to all items that are the same in form as a word that can be used as a preposition, whether or not those items fit the syntactic definition of "preposition." CHAPTER I PRACTICAL CRITERIA FOR SELECTING PREPOSITIONAL MATERIALS The goal of second-language instruction is to provide information to the students that has the potential for guiding them to the forma- tion of acceptable utterances to express their ideas, reactions, feelings, etc. in a wide range of real-life situations. This is not only the goal of second-language instruction, but, quite naturally, it usually also functions as the standard by which students, laymen and professionals assess the quality of a language teacher, as well as the quality of instructional methods and materials (Newmark, 1966: 216). The only true test of the adequacy and appropriateness of particu- lar instructional materials is the test of empirical research, but the time, expense and labor involved in carrying out valid empirical re- search precludes the possibility of this form of materials evaluation for this particular study. Prior to empirical research, however, must come the process of selection of the instructional materials to be used in the research, and if appropriate materials cannot be found, materials must be fermulated specifically fer research purposes. Assuming the above-mentioned goal to be the goal of all second- language instruction, the materials that are selected, on any tapic, should be materials that appear to have the potential for fulfilling this purpose. 5 It would seem reasonable to demand of any presentation of infbrma- tion that the information be both accurate and complete, inasmuch as possible. Accuracy No single theoretical school of linguistics, no independent lin- guist, and not even the entire field of linguistics, has arrived at a definitive description of language phenomena (Sadock, 1977: 239). Ac- curacy cannot be measured against an objective standard, but must be measured in relative terms. If the information presented in a grammat- ical description, explanation or set of rules does not misrepresent the rules of a language, then that description, explanation or set of rules must be considered accurate. If following the guidelines presented in that grammatical description, explanation or set of rules would produce obviously ungrammatical utterance, then that description, explanation or set of rules must be considered inaccurate. The degree to which accuracy of grammatical information presenta- tion affects the success or failure of language-learning activity is unknown. Indeed, a cursory inspection of French and Spanish texts in use in some high schools and colleges in the United States can provide examples of inaccurate grammatical information, but, at the same time, the students who have used these texts may be quite competent in accu- rately producing the structures for which they have been given inaccu- rate information. It would seem, however, that student would be best served by textbooks that are at least accurate in the most general rules, and in describing the most common structures of a language. Therefore, if a text contains inaccuracies in the presentation of 6 general or common information, it will be considered inaccurate; if it contains inaccuracies in details of usage, or in uncommonly-used structures, its inaccuracy will be overlooked. For example, if a textbook on English prepositional usage states that all indirect ob- ject forms in English must be preceded by the preposition pp, that text will be evaluated as inaccurate; if the text classes some questionable forms as prepositions, this fact will not be considered as significant enough to detract from the fundamental accuracy of the grammatical in- formation presentation. Completeness There does not appear to be any agreement among grammarians as to the exact number of words and phrases that can be considered ”preposi- tions" in the English language. Most grammarians list at least twenty such items, and the most common range is between twenty-five and thirty "simple" prepositions, with an indeterminate and fluctuating number of ”phrasal" or ”complex” prepositions. Since there is no single standard of quantity that can be used to determine the completeness of a descrip- tion of the forms and usage of English prepositions, the apparent con- sensus that there are more than twenty simple prepositional forms will be used as the standard of measurement. If a grammatical presentation does not include at least twenty items in its ”prepositonal" category, that presentation will be evaluated as being incomplete. Moreover, if the description does not include both types of forms-—simple or one- word prepositional elements and complex or phrasal prepositional ele- ments—~it will also be judged to be incomplete. In all other cases, the grammatical description will be considered complete. 7 In addition to the accuracy and completeness that one would expect to find as characteristics of any type of presentation of any type of information, in order to attain the goal that was previously stated, second-language instructional materials would also need to possess the characteristics of comprehensibility and range. Comprehensibility "Comprehensibility" refers to the intellectual accessibility of the presentation of grammatical information. One standard that could be used to measure the comprehensibility of a particular presentation is the accessibility of that presentation to the language teacher. If the teacher cannot understand the description, it is unlikely--although not impossible--that the students would be able to understand the teacher's presentation of the ill-comprehended material. Extremely intricate symbol systems are likely to detract from comprehensibility, especially if the symbols are little-known, or are intricate enough to require substantial effort before they can be mastered and before the information they summarize can be accessible. Commonly-used symbols, or grammatical terms that are likely to be known by students would not detract from the comprhensibility of a description. As a somewhat broad criterion, then, the teacher in search of appropriate materials could dismiss materials that he or she does not understand as materials that would not be useful or appropriate for his or her classroom use, and could dismiss materials that contain intricate or little-known symbol systems as materials that are unlikely to be useful for class- room presentation. While this is not the ultimate test of comprehensibility, it is a test that can be applied in the selection of materials. Range The "range" of the presentation of gramnatical information would be the diversity of the types of real-life situations to which the pre- sented structures would be appropriate. For example, in certain obscene English expressions, the ”-ing" form of a verb can function adverbially, although "-ing” adverbial structures are uncommon in English in general. If the presentation of grammatical information were to emphasize such little-used structures in preference to emphasizing the most commonly used structures, then that presentation should be judged to be inappro- priate for classroom use. In terms of prepositional forms and usage, if the grammatical pre— sentation emphasize forms such as pm1g_and notwithstanding, rather than concentrating on the more common forms such as 133 pp, pt, etc., then that presentation could be judged to be inadequate and inappropriate for classroom use. In addition, if the presentation concerned itself with "phrasal" or complex prepositional forms, but did not concern it- self with the simple, one-word prepositional forms, then that presenta- tion could be considered unsatisfactory for classroom use. These standards for acceptance or rejection of a grammatical presentation can be justified on the grounds that the simple, one—word prepositional forms appear to occur in all levels of formality in English, whereas prepositional forms such as notwithstanding, and some phrasal preposi— tional forms, such as i lieu pf, do not have as wide a potential distribution within the language (although some of the phrasal forms are probably as commonly—used as the simple one-word forms). The learning of forms that are acceptable in a wide range of styles or of varieities is more likely to result in the language learner's 9 ability to produce utterances that are acceptable in a wide range of real-life situations than is the learning of forms with limited po- tential distribution. For prepositional material presentations, in addition to possess- ing the characteristics of accuracy, completeness, comprehensibility and range, it would seem to be desirable that they also possess the characteristics of generality and simplicity,* and that they be defi- nitional in nature. Generality Languagelearners do not appear to be extremely sensitive to the grammatical function of preposition-like forms, and often refer to any element that looks like a preposition as a "preposition"; in keeping with this generalization based on appearance that is commonly made by students of English, it would seem reasonable for grammatical informa- tion presentations to categorize forms that appear to be identical into a single category. This does not preclude later and supplementary sub- categorization into distinctive grammatical function groupings. It would, however, provide explicit, formal acceptance of the identity-of- appearance observation and generalization made by the students. Even in cases where the forms appear to differ in meaning, classing them all in a single category would force the grammatical presentation into maximum generalization, at least in the initial phases of the pre- sentation. Subdivisions, whether they be of grammatical function or of "shades of meaning," would still be possible. For example, the form *The term "generality" is used here to refer to the categorization of fbrms into one class on the basis of identity of appearance; the term "simplicity“ is used here to refer to the categorization of forms into one class on the basis of similarity in the subject-object relationship that they express. This is a departure from normal linguistic use of these terms. 10 "up" that appears in the following sample sentences, would have to be classed under a single heading, or in a single category: They were walking pp_the hill. He carried the box pp_the stairs. She stood and called gp_the stairs. They blew gp_the balloons. The wind blew gp_the chimney. The rebels blew pp_the building. Since the students do appear to consider these forms to be identical, and do appear to class them in a single category, a presentation of grammatical information that (at least) began by classing them in a single category would parallel the activity observed in the students. A presentation that does not categorize forms that are identical in appearance in the same category, but that only differentiates among such forms, would not possess the desired generality. It is not es- sential that the description also provide a "meaning" for the forms that are classed in a single category, but it would be desirable for it to do so. Simplicity The characteristic of "simplicity" in a presentation of informa- tion about English prepositional forms can be considered the categori- zation of all forms that serve a similar (or identical) semantic function into a single class or category. Again, this would not pre- clude further subdivision. It would merely provide formal, explicit acceptance of the similarity or identity of "meaning". For example, gt, pp_and jp_all are used to express the idea of the object of the preposition being located in the same place as some other object or an 11 action. Because of the similarity in the type of relationship expressed by these three different prepositions, they should all be classified in a single category. They may subsequently be sub-classified into differ- ent categories. A presentation that does not classify forms with similar or ident- ical meanings in the same category, but that only differentiates between or among such forms, would not possess the desired simplicity. Definitional Presentation In requiring that the presentation of information about English prepositional forms be definitional, one need only demand that there be provided for the students some type of guide that will allow them to understand, and hopefully to learn, the concept that English-speaking people associate with a particular form. Any format that provides this type of information would be acceptable: charts, pictures, diagrams, definitions, or explanations. There is no evidence to indicate that one format for presenting semantic information is superior to, or more effective than, any other. This criterion is different from generality and simplicity in that generality and simplicity dictate strategy to be followed in the organi- zation or classification of prepositional forms (which may implicitly provide definitional information), but the criterion of providing a definitional presentation demands that "meaning" be presented in some overt manner such as charts, diagrams or explanations. A presentation that merely lists the prepositions and prepositional forms, and gives no guidelines as to how one form can be distinguished from the others, or guidelines that would help the student to identify 12 the type of relationship represented by the fbrm, would not possess the desired characteristic of being definitional in nature. Summary and Discussion of Criteria In the search for instructional materials on English prepositional farms, presentations that possess the characteristics described above can be judged to possess, as a consequence, the potential for being both adequate and appropriate for classroom use; presentations that do not possess these characteristics can be considered unlikely to possess the potential for being adequate and appropriate for classroom use. A presentation can be considered accurate if the most general in- formation on prepositional usage, when followed as guidelines, would not result in the production of obviously ungrammatical utterances. A presentation can be considered complete if it includes at least twenty simple prepositional forms, and if it presents information on both 7 simple and complex prepositional forms. A presentation can be consid- ered comprehensible if it is likely to be understood by the teacher who is in search of instructional materials, and if it does not depend on intricate and little-known symbol systems. A presentation can be considered to be adequate in terms of range if it includes the most- commonly-used simple prepositional forms, and if it contains informa- tion about the most common forms of both simple and complex or "phrasal" prepositions. A presentation can be evaluated as possessing the characteristic of generality if it categorizes all fonms that are identical in appearance in the same category, and can be evaluated as possessing the characteristic of simplicity if it categorizes all fbrms that have the same semantic function in a single category or 13 group. A presentation can be considered to be definitional in nature if it supplies some form of information to guide students toward the concept that English-speaking people generally associate with a par- ticular prepositional fonn. Possessing these characteristics is the minimum that is required of a presentation of grammatical information concerning English prepo- sitions, if that presentation is to be expected to provide information to adult second-language learners that would have the potential for guiding them to the formation of acceptable utterances to express their ideas, reactions, feelings, etc., in a wide range of real-life situa- tions. Providing information with this type of potential is the goal of second-language instruction. Other characteristics might be considered desirable, and for a particular teacher, or a particular group of students, other charac— teristics might be considered necessary. For example, students them- selves have expressed a desire to be given "explicit formulations of generalization" about the grammar of the languages that they study (Newmark, 1966: 218). To ensure cooperation from the students who want such generalizations, these explicit formulations should probably be included in the information that is presented to the students. It is unproven whether explicit formulations would, in fact, be of signifi- cant utility in the learning process, but, in a classroom, ensuring cooperation from the students is an important enough goal to have an effect on the content and format of instructional materials. For this investigation and evaluation of the content and format of English pre- positional fonns and usage, criteria such as this are considered ir- relevant, in that they are more strongly dependent on the learning 14 situation than on the nature of the information or the interaction between learning situation and information. CHAPTER II APPLICATION OF THE SELECTED CRITERIA TO AVAILABLE PRESENTATIONS 0f the available presentations of grammatical information about English prepositional forms, the most obvious category to investigate first is the category of presentations that have been formulated specif- ically for use in foreign-language classrooms. Pedagogical Presentations Since these presentations were designed for essentially the same purpose as the purpose expressed by this investigator, one would ex- pect them to be the most likely to possess those characteristics that were deemed essential for instructional materials. General Presentations of English Grammatical Infbrmation All of the works investigated are general grammars of the English language, intended for use by students of English as a second language: Crowell. 1964. Index to Modern English. Krohn. 1971. English Sentence Structure. Danielson & Hayden. 1975. UsjngEnglish Your Second Langgpgp, Praninskas. 1975. Rapid Review offinglish Grammar. Ebbitt & Ebbitt. 1977. Index to English. Klammer. 1977. Sentence Sense: A Basic Grammar. For the sake of convenience, these books are referred to by the name of the author or authors, with full bibliographic references appearing in the bibliography. These particular books are discussed because they represent a range of different styles of information presentation. 15 16 Crowell In no case does Crowell present statements that would lead to the formation of obviously ungrammatical utterances, and, in addition, he deals with a large number of simple and complex prepositional forms. Crowell does not make use of any special symbols, other than abbrevia- tions for commonly-used grammatical terminology, except for the symbol "S" which he uses to make a “separable two-word verb" (p. 281), but he defines and gives examples of what he means by this symbol. Crowell presents a list of 39 simple prepositional forms (p. 280), and an ex- tensive listing of phrasal prepositions (pp. 281-303). Crowell does categorize forms that are apparently identical into a single category, and even provides an explicit statement that he is doing so: Grammatically these words are not always prepositions; they are sometimes used as adverbs, conjunctions, or other parts of speech. Some grammarians call them particles or function words. Often they are part of a two-word verb... For the purposes of this list, however, they will be classified as prepositions even though in many of these expressions they do not have the function of prepositions. (p. 280) Besides providing a listing of the prepositional forms, Crowell pro- vides three different types of concept-form correlation information: a "definition" of the prepositional form itself, a definition of the con- cepts that are commonly used with the prepositional form, and a defini- tion of the concepts conveyed by a phrase in which a preposition appears. For example, Crowell indicates that the prepositional form p§_can be used to mean "in the role or capacity of" or "with the func- tion of" (p. 54); he states that when expressions of location indicate the birthplace or nationality of a person, they are preceded by the 17 preposition jrpm_(p. 157); and he provides the definition "decide" for the phrases "come to a conclusion" and "arrive at a conclusion" (p. 285). While Crowell's presentation of information about English preposi- tional forms adequately fulfills the requirements for most of the selected criteria, it fails to fulfill the requirements for the char- acteristic of simplicity. Rather than classifying forms that serve a similar semantic function into a single category (although all forms do appear under a single heading, because Crowell's presentation is arranged alphabetically), Crowell emphasizes differences rather than similarities in meaning. For example, he classes the sample sentence "My secretary has gone to the post office for some stamps" under the heading of fpp_ to represent purpose or reason, but he classes the sample sentence "The boat sailed for Europe last Saturday" under the heading of fig; as an indicator of destination (p. 156). These two concepts seem, intuitively, to have a strong relationship with each other, but Crowell presents no unifying theme or concept to be associated with the prepositional form fps, and totally neglects any consideration of fpp_in the expression "for the benefit of" as being at all related to either or both of the concepts conveyed by the two sample sentences shown above. kpppp, The prepositional information presented by Krohn fails to fulfill the requirements of accuracy and completeness. The basis of the pre- sentation is a set of two sample sentences that are compared in word order. "Prepositions" are implicitly defined as those forms that look the same as particles, but that precede a sentence object, and "parti- cles" are implicitly defined as those forms that look the same as 18 prepositions but that follow the sentence object, if that sentence object is a pronoun or a short noun phrase, and that precede a longer sentence object. Ten items are either explicitly or implicitly identi- are identified as prepositions are the forms that occur in the position identified by "preposition" in the following structure: "verb + prepo- sition + object"; the forms that are identified as particles are the forms that would occur in the position identified as "particle" in the following structure: "verb + object + particle" (p. 121).* Following the guidelines of this information presentation, one could produce the ungrammatical utterances "*He walked the stairs up," and "*He climbed the fence over," and one could not produce the gram- matical utterances "He walked up the stairs" and "He climbed over the fence." .Up_and pypp_are identified only as "particles" not as "prepo- sitions" and the schema for particles indicates that particles follow the object (p. 121). Krohn's presentation of information about prepositional fonms fails to be adequate in a number of different ways. First, following its guidelines would result in the production of obviously ungrammatical sentences; second, it lists 19 simple forms, and does not list or make reference to any phrasal or complex prepositions; third, it limits the production that is possible, if its guidelines are followed, to a small *Krohn misleadingly labels this unit as one which contains "verb + particle + object" structures, but in the body of the unit, gives the formula in reverse as “verb + object + particle" (p. 121). 19 number of sentence types and does not include a vast number of sen- tence types that are used in an equally vast number of real-life situations (presumably, one could never talk about walking up stairs, or climbing over fences, or any similar actions involving motion up or over); fourth, identical forms such as 1p_that is prepositional in function and 1p_that is adverbial in function are classed in separate categories, and no attempt is made to show any indication that they are related to each other in form or in meaning. Danielson & Hayden Danielson and Hayden, when discussing prepositional phrases that are used as adverbials of place and of time, do not make use of the term "preposition" to describe the prepositional fbrms. Furthermore, when discussing adverbial phrases of purpose, they resort to the labels "for-phrase" and "to-phrase," and continue to avoid calling preposition- al forms by the label "prepositions" (PP. 99-105). However, in the chapter devoted to "two-word verbs," the statement is made that “in this book, two-word verbs are treated as fixed combinations of verbs and prepositions" (p. 148). Danielson and Hayden do not make any visible attempt to show a relationship between prepositions and preposition-like forms that appear in two-word verb phrases, but their apparent decision to eliminate potential confusion by removing prepositions from the class of words that they call "prepositions" seems to be a particularly bad method of resolving this issue. Failing to establish the characteristic of generality in their presentation of grammatical information about English prepositional usage, Danielson and Hayden also fail to establish simplicity, because 20 they concentrate on differentiating shades of meaning rather than paying attention to the similarities of meaning that may exist. The prepositional forms that appear in phrasal prepositions and in two-word verbs are not included in attempts at definition, and these definitions concentrate on distinguishing among the identical forms that are used to perform the truly prepositional grammatical function. For example, the preposition ip_is generally defined as an indicator of location "inside a place or within a given area" as in the sample sentence "Mrs. Robb bought some roses at a flower stand jp_the Farmer's Market" (p. 102), but this meaning of ip_is distinguished from the meaning of 1p_ that is conveyed in the sample sentence "I came jp_a taxi" (p. 103). Intuitively, these two phrases do not seem to be assigning different semantic functions to the preposition 1p, and distinguishing between the semantic functions that they perform seems to be not only inappro- priate, but also inaccurate. In addition, although Danielson and Hayden seem to be providing some sort of definition for the prepositional forms that they discuss, the definitions that are provided are circular definitions, that define the word by means of the word itself, and such circular definitions are not normally considered adequate definitions for any purpose. For example, ip_is defined as "inside a place or within an area" (p. 102), and the fact that the meanings of the words ip§1g3.and pjtpip_are dependent on the meaning of the word jp_makes this definition circular, and, therefore, inadequate. The presentation of information that is provide by Danielson and Hayden does not demonstrate those characteristics that have been selected, and can therefore be considered inadequate and inappropriate 21 for classroom use. Praninskas Instead of the two categories that are mentioned by many other presentations, Praninskas distinguishes four different categories of prepositional forms, and assigns preposition-like words to the cate- gories in the manner shown in Figure 1. Common areas of meaning that a form might possess, regardless of the category to which it has been assigned, are not considered, and no attempt is made to classify identical forms in a single category, or to show how identical forms that are classified in different categories might be related to each other. The four categories mentioned by Praninskas are "prepositions,” "particles," "expressions of place,” and ”time words.” The only cor- relation that is demonstrated among these categories is the implicit correlation expressed by classifying the same forms into more than one of the categories. Some information that is not actually erroneous, but that is mis— leading, is presented by Praninskas. As can be seen from Figure l, gftgp is classified as both a preposition and a time word, as is pptil, but E§f9£§.ls classified as an expression of place and a time word. According to this presentation, the phrase "the third house before the tracks“ would be an expression of place, but the phrase "the third house after the tracks" would (apparently) be a prepositional phrase. While this does not preclude the formation of both of these phrases, and does not mark one of them as acceptable and the other as unaccept- able, it does seem to be unnecessarily confusing. .ammma .moxmcpcmca cw umcwaucou 22 .mvcoams _a=uxmu soc» emanate "mucaomv mmxmc_=mca an mason Pacowawmonogm we cowuuovw_mma~u .fi mczmpm x x x memo: uzah x x x x x x x x x x uu PLA . p'{e' -->PROX . e") (1969: 166), he also presents readily intelligible descriptions in normal, everyday, non-complex language, and he presents diagrammatic information: Xox +_x_ AT ON IN Figure 5. Diagram of At/On/In (adapted from Leech, 1969: 161) The description presented by Leech is easily understood, fulfilling the requirements of the criterion of comprehensibility. By means of these formulas, diagrams and other explanations, Leech presents defi- nitions of the prepositions that he discusses, thereby fulfilling the requirements of the criterion of providing a definitional presentation, and he also classes all forms that serve the same semantic function together, since his entire description is based on conceptual distinc- tions. For example, pp, pp_and 1p, while being concerned with location, _ are also concerned with dimensionality, and are therefore classed to- gether (1969: 161), and away from, off and ppp_pp, all being concerned with location, are also concerned with expressing the negative of the relations that are expressed by pp, pp_and 1p, so all six of these units are considered together, with subgroupings of the positive and negative relationships. ' Leech's presentation fails to fulfill the requirements of the criteria of generality and of range, since his presentation does not concern itself with forms that are identical in appearance to the prepositions that he does discuss, but which are not expressions 54 indicating physical location. Following the information given by Leech, one would only be able to formulate utterances that pertain to physical location, and not the wide range of real-life situations that are, in fact, expressed by these forms. Summary of Examination of Available Presentations In general, the available presentations do not satisfy the selected criteria, and the pedagogical presentations satisfy the criteria less than the theoretical presentations. The only presentation that satis- fies all of the criteria is the presentation of information about Spanish prepositions, and the information is not directly useful for teaching English prepositional forms, since the Spanish prepositions are not exact equivalents of the English ones, and cannot be used in the same variety of grammatical structures.. Figure 6 (p. 55) shows the information about which presentations fulfill each of the criteria. From this, it can easily be seen that no presentation, of the presentations that are investigated, succeeds in satisfying the requirements of all of the selected criteria. The appropriate conclusion, therefore, is that none of these presentations of infbrmation can be considered adequate for classroom use in the teaching of English prepositional forms to adult second-language learners. . _ .__.._.- w’dm l 55 A;m__m=m aocv smacaam, meowuaucmmoca uo=_5axm ma a_cmuwcu venom—mm to =o_uum$m_umm .o we:m_a \3 \3 \s \ \) muwucasmm .\ ,\\, .x; ,\> ,\> .\ Nmaog "camaocsm ‘> ceasaco ammo ‘> ‘> uFEmEmMH pm__a=o_uau_c_aacam ‘>E> S» \> 5>§> 5a §~§>§> Pacowuascoemcach-m>_»acm:mm mucmnom §p5> mowed \>\>‘> \>\>‘> 5>5>5> mamaammmm umwpacapoacum 4‘> \>‘> ‘>‘> ‘>‘> copam: 4‘>‘> ‘>‘> can a: commecan \> ‘> T>‘>‘S \’ \ \> Fpmzocn 4<¢mzmm naPHUH4¢sz >HH4<¢uzmu mozP~4Hmam Izmzmmmzoo mmmz nuHMAmZOU >u- o Q m ' I F-uJ 'c>z: I H l— r—a Lu / 5:55 :25: y l— m ..I r— 0 LL] LLI < O: a: Location S = 0 AT ALONG ON INSIDE Motion IN Location S f 0 (not at) OFF OUTSIDE Motion AWAY OUT Location S >, 0 ABOVE BEYOND OVER Motion UP PAST ACROSS l THROUGH Location S < O BELOW —— BENEATH UNDER Motion DOWN S =3 0 ABOUT ALONGSIDE BESIDE(S) AROUND ”Patio" 5 #0 _EFORE UNTIL IN FRONT OF NEAR Motion TO TOWARD ONTO INTO Location AFTER SINCE BEHIND [ll/FAé/(if/H —— 0 5—; Motion FROM AWAY FROM OFF OF OUT OF S —-O OPPOSITE AGAINST Location OF FOR S + 0 BY Motion WITH DURING THROUGHOUT s e 0 (”HI/(HINT BETWEEN AMONG WITHIN S D 0 EXCEPT APART FROM ASIDE FROM WITHOUT Figure 7. Chart of Prepositional Relationships 71 The discussion is divided into sections according to the types of relationships (equivalence, etc.), and according to "location" and "motion" for those relationships where these factors appear to be most relevant. Each discussion includes the author's conception of the mean- ing of the relationship category, and a discussion, with examples, of the prepositional forms that the author feels belong in the category. An attempt is made to include compounded words and two-word verbs, as well as prepositions, in these discussions. There are some phrases that do not appear to fit the categories that are described, and they could be clues of misplacement in the presentation, or they could be frozen forms that have remained in the language as idioms while the prepositional forms that they contain changed over time. A phrase such as against the wall ("The ladder was leaning against the wall") does not seem to fit the category of "dis- junction" as well as against the dictator does in the sentence "The rebels fought against the dictator." Equivalence: At, Along, 0n, In,_Inside One of the most directly visible relationships that two entities may have is that of equivalence of location. Whatever the "subject" of the relationship may be, if two entities are located in the same place, pp_is used if the object of the preposition is a point, plppg_is used if the object of the preposition is a line, pp is used if the object of the preposition is a plane, and pp_is used if the object of the prep- osition is a solid. "pp_the corner" is used when the corner is con- ceived of as a point, perhaps the intersection of two streets, similar to the way that a mathematician would plot a point on a graph by show- ing it as the intersection of two lines. "pp_the corner" can be used 72 when the corner is visualized as a plane or a surface formed by the concrete of the sidewalk, the length and width of the plane being formed by the two streets that cross each other. "pp_the corner" re- quires a three-dimensional figure in order to be the appropriate mode of expression. A box, a room, a hall, a cabinet, a desk drawer, or any- thing that has a corner that is formed by the intersection of three planes, is appropriately accompanied by 1p, “pp.the desk" is used to refer to an item that is contained within a three-dimensional space, usually a desk drawer. ”pp_the desk" refers to an item that is located on the surface of the desk, usually the top planar surface (and the third dimension of the desk is irrelevant here). "pp_the desk" refers to the desk as a point in space, collocating the subject and the object at the same point in space (and the dimensional- ity of the desk is completely irrelevant here). Two different prepositional forms may be used when the reality of a physical situation permits viewing that situation from two different perspectives. At a corner and on a corner may both be used in reference to a street corner, which is formed by two streets, and which is also the point of intersection of the two streets. At church and in church may both be used to describe the same situation, pp.being chosen when the speaker views "church" as a point in space that functions as a specific location, and pp_being chosen when the speaker views the church as being a building, which is three-dimensional. plppg_is generally used with reference to fences, the side of a house, a property line, or some other entity for which linearity is the salient characteristic. "There is parking along the street," "There is 73 parking pp the street," "There is parking pp_the street," all describe the same physical situation, but plppg the street suggests that there are quite a few parking places, running the length of the street. Ippjpp_appears to be appropriate only when clearly-defined limits exist, such as the walls of a building, room, garden, etc. It imples containment, and for at least some native speakers of English, it is most appropriately used with verbs that refer to states rather than to motion. For some native speakers, "to walk ippjpp_a room” means that the motion is wholly contained within the limits imposed by the walls of the room. This would represent a contrast for these speakers between motion from a position external to the room that ended in a position that was internal to the room (expressed by ippp). For these speakers, also, pp_can be used to describe either situation, or can be used when the location does not have specific and confining limits. This could suggest that inside may be an emphatic form of jp, conveying no more information than would be conveyed by 1p, but rather, emphasizing cer- tain perceptible aspects of the situation that is being described. In standard varieties of American English, giving directions is generally done with pp when a specific house number is used (pp_211 Main Street), with pp when a two—dimensional measurement is used (pp_ the 800 block of Main Street), and pp_is generally used only when the city or a neighborhood is the description that is given (They are pp New York; They live pp_the student ghetto). Location in time as well as in space can be done by means of these three prepositions. Simple units of time that specify the hour and minute, apparently are conceptualized as points in time, and it is 74 customary to say pp 3:00. More complex units, such as specific dates or days of the week are apparently construed as two-dimensional, or at least as being less simple than a point in time, since they are custom- arily preceded by pp_(pp the 27th of September; pp_Friday). Units of time that are more complex than days are generally preceded by ip_(1__ September, pp_1978, pp_the twentieth century). Expressions such as in an hour and inside of an hour are not incon- sistent with this analysis, since an hour can be perceived as a solid unit of time, and in an hour generally means at the end of a sixty- minute period, while inside of an hour generally implies that the activ- ity will be contained within the limits of one minute from the time of speaking until sixty minutes from the time of speaking, and while the activity may cease after only a few minutes, its maximum duration will be one hour. 0n the other hand, expressions such as in an hour and in a minute may be considered confounding data in this analysis, since ~they generally refer to the end of the time period, and not to some time within the limits of the stated time period. In addition to time, pp/pp/jp/along/inside may be used to express some imaginative or figurative concepts. One could say that a speaker was pp_a specific point in his lecture, that the lecture was pp_a cer- tain topic, that the topic was pp_a certain field of study. One may also say that another lecturer expressed ideas that were plppg_the same lines of thought. lppjpp_does not appear to be a possible choice when the object of the preposition does not have recognizable sides or limits. In fact, jppjpp_appears to be quite restricted in use, since it cannot be used for expressions such as *inside a field of study, or at least 75 is not commonly used in such a phrase. In the intuitive analysis of the author, *jpplpp_a field of study does not seem to be grammatically un- reasonable but it does seem to be unacceptable. lppipp_frequently occurs in the expression inside out, where it appears to have the char- acter of a noun rather than that of a preposition or adverb, and this expression is one of the few instances where jppigp_might be given a figurative meaning. The expression inside out, which can also be viewed as a series of prepositional forms appears to contain the same semantic import that is conveyed by the prepositional use of ippjpp, One can say that someone is 313193 the house, or talk about the 11129.2 of a house, and while these are obvious changes in the grammatical function of the word jppjpp, they do not appear to convey significantly different meanings. One can talk about what one "feels jppjpp," and seldom, if ever, does one overtly express any object of the preposition ippjpp, In this case, the unmentioned object would appear to be figurative in nature, but it also appears to be quite difficult to express by means of any particu- lar, customary expression. In comparison to the usage of jppjpp, the prepositional forms pp, pp, and pp_may combine more freely with other prepositional forms, either in separable sequences, or in apparently inseparable combina- tions. Since a large number of students say that they have been taught neveriXJuse more than one preposition, and since students appear to have considerable difficulty in distinguishing acceptable sequences from unacceptable sequences, it is helpful for the student to be given 76 information about potential sequences of prepositional forms. For example, pp can appear in sequences such as at about, at around, pp_ above, at below, at over, at under, along at, on at, inside at, in at, outside at, out at, and over at. When pp_appears first in the sequence, it appears to indicate that the following items will be indicators of location, either physical or figurative: He will come at about 6:00; The temperature stabilized at about 60°; These items can be purchased at under one half of the regular price. When pp appears second in the sequence, it appears to be an indicator of location as well, but the items that follow it are more specific (less approximate) than the items shown above with pp appearing first in the sequence: That TV show comes pp_pp_6:00, You'll find him pp_pp_the bar; I was over at my friend's house. These sequences of prepositional forms are not structurally the same. "The TV show is at about 6:00" is structurally similar to “The TV show is pp approximately 6:00," but “The TV show comes pp_pp_6:OO," the pp seems to be related to pppp§_more than to at 6:00. Since the types of potential sequences may be dependent on the meanings expressed by the prepositional forms, it seems relevant to discuss at least the possible acceptable sequences. pp_appears to combine sequentially as freely as pp, or possibly even more freely: You have the coat on inside out; Come on down out of there; He went off on a wild goose chase; We'll be down on about the 24th; She is here every day except on Wednesday; etc. In these ex- amples, and in the many other examples that can readily be constructed, pp regularly appears to convey approximately the same meaning, although it is quite difficult to capture the "definition" of pp, 77 pp_also appreas in sequences quite frequently: Come on in out of the rain; I'll be in with the doctor in about a minute; He is outside over in the park; She'll be around in an hour; etc. Again, pp appears to convey a consistent meaning, and that meaning appears to be accept- able in combination with the meanings of some of the other prepositional forms. In expressions that denote non-physical entities, pp_appears to be the choice that is more commonly acceptable than jppjpp; pp common, pp_white, pp_pain, pp_power, pp_possession, pp_preference, etc. Pres- ence is regularly expressed by pp_appearing alone, but not by jppjpp_ unless "sides" or limits are discernible: He is pp_the park, He is jppppp_the park; They sat down pp_the classroom, They sat down jppjpp_ the classroom; All of the people pp_the room were enjoying themselves, All of the people jppppp_the room were enjoying themselves; All of the students pp the class were there (but not *All of the students pppipp_ the class were there); We voted pp_the last election (but not *We voted jppjpp_the last election); The doctor is pp_today (but not *The doctor is jppjgp_today, as a statement of the presence, as opposed to the absence, of the doctor). The phrases in which the prepositional form appears alone, with no accompanying object, can be classified into two distinct types of mean- ing categories: unexpressed object and unexpressible object. For the unexpressed object category, pp_does not appear to have any readily accessible entries, but pp, pp_and plppg.do. If one says "We were just walking plppg," the object is not expressed, but it is understood to be some sort of path, street, roadway, sidewalk or route, all of which are essentially linear. The exact identity of the location of walking is 78 not stated, very possibly because it is unessential information. The implications of this type of statement are often that the walking had no specific goal, or that it was not hurried. The general purposes of "walking plppgf seem to be to pass time, to get exercise, or some other activity that does not have a defined point in space or time as its goal. The configuration of the location in which the action takes place is provided by the prepositional form, which appears to be spe- cific enough to convey the communicative intent of the speaker. If one says "He kept his hat pp," or "He put his clothes pp_hurriedly," there is no object that needs to be expressed, since the object location of the activity is well-known and obvious. In the case that the activity is not directed toward the obvious location, it seems necessary to overtly express the object: "He put his hat pp.the chair," or "He put his clothes pp_the hangers hurriedly." If one talks about settling ij to a new house or apartment, one generally does not have any obvious need to express the object of the prepositional form 1p; "1 need a week to get settled pp," The meanings conveyed by the prepositional forms do not seem to be significantly different from the meanings that such forms would have in a grammatically-defined prepositional phrase. In the case that the nature of the object of the preposition is not known precisely, but some pertinent characteristics of the object are known, the object may be unexpressible, for the simple reason that no expression exists (or is known to the speaker) that would serve to clearly identify the object to the listener. In these cases, the pert- inent characteristics appear to be the means by which a preposition is selected. In the current expression "where it's pp," the implications F" "he. [TL-i $.5- “ 79 are that whatever "it" is, "it" is expected to have a precise location, and a location that is not everly extensive. If one talks about "help- ing someone plppg," one does not have any apparent travel location in mind, but one conveys the image that the motion is linear, in the way that time, life, and some other such concepts are considered linear. 9p also can be used to convey the image of passage along a route or path, even in phrases like keep pp_and go pp, expecially when they are followed by no object or by an implicit verbal expression: "He was doing a good job, so I told him to keep pp," When the expression "hand pp? is used, one can get a mental image of a reasonably large number of dis- tinct items that are collected together in one location, thereby form- ing a larger unit, which is complex by virtue of being composed of a multlplicity of component parts. The exact nature of the entity that is created is quite difficult to express by means of any simple, readily- accessible expression in the English language. It seems reasonable to assert that there are entities that exist but that are not easy to express in a given language. For example, the French pppp_does not have any simple and readily-accessible equivalent in the English language. In addition, it is a common human experience to have an idea, but not know how to express that idea in words. Given that vocabulary in a language seems to depend on common agreement con- cerning meaning, it is possible to conceive of common agreement about the difficulty in expressing a concept. In the case of reference being made to such items, no name (simple, readily-accessible expression) would need to be created to fill the lexical "gap" in the language. With the "subject" of the prepositional form being stated, and the 80 prepositional form being stated in order to identify the relationship that is being expressed, it would seem that the bearer has been given adequate semantic information by the speaker. In summary, equivalence of location, whether that equivalence is the result of motion, or simultaneous with motion, or simply expressed without any reference to motion, can be expressed in standard varieties of American English by pp, plppg, pp, pp_and jppjpp, depending on the observable shape or the hypothesized shape of the stated or the unex- pressed object of the prepositional form. Non-Equivalence: Away, Off, Out, Outside In contrast to the relationship of equivalence of location, is the relationship of non-equivalence of location, expressed by means of pppy, ppp, ppp_and outside. Because a point is a specific, but very limited, location in space, most entities will be non-equivalent in location to any given point, and equivalence of location will be the exception rather than the rule. For this reason, it seems reasonable to conjecture that the English language can express non-equivalence of location simply by negating the equiva- lence-marking prepositional form, rather than by using any specific form, as in the following sentence: "They were throwing stones, but ppp_ pp the puddle of water." Since this is not really a special form, or even one created by combining elements, it is not included in the list of forms, but it does seem to be able to function as the opposite in meaning to the form pp, when pp is used to express equivalence of loca- tion. 81 Although it is not strongly prepositional in grammatical function, pppy_seems to function as the opposite of pp, when pp is used to ex- press equivalence of location as the result of, or simultaneous with, some motion. It appears to be primarily adverbial in grammatical func- tion, as in the following sentences: She took the book to her room/She took the book pppy, pppy_functions in the example here in almost exactly the same way as the prepositional phrase to her room, but it can also function in a manner that is similar to the functioning of the preposition-like particles: She took pppy_the book. This interposition between the verb and the direct object of the sentence cannot normally be found with prepositional phrases that function as adverbials. pppy_ can be used as a one-word expression of location, in the same way that pp_and ppp_can: The doctor is ip,/The doctor is ppp,/The doctor is pppy, In most cases where a noun or a noun substitute follows away, away appears in combination with pppp, to form the compound prepositional unit away from, which will be discussed under the category of VWithdraw- ing from Equivalence (Motion)" (pp. 103).. Since pppy_does appear to contrast in meaning with pp, it will be considered the opposite of pp, expressing non-equivalence of location as a result of motion or simul- taneous with motion, but it must also be noted that pppy_does not func- tion as universally as pp does, since it does not appear alone before a noun phrase or a noun substitute. Two-dimensional non-equivalence relationships all seem to be ex- pressed by the preposition ppf, or by the negation of the prepositional form plppg_and pp, which serve to represent equivalent-location rela- tionships. The pp/ppp_contrast appears quite frequently in everyday 82 life, and this frequency of occurrence implies that the relationship of opposition that these two forms have with each other is quite strongly- felt by speakers of English. Three-dimensional non-equivalence relationships are expressed by forms that are parallel to the forms used to express three-dimensional equivalence relationships. In contrast to 1p, is the form ppp; in con- trast to inside, is the form outside. Out appears to be as generally acceptable for expressing most non-equivalence relationships as pp_is for expressing most equivalence relationships. Outside appears to be slightly more commonly used in a figurative sense than jppppp can be, expecially with reference to some entity, concept or situation that is external to the speaker. If one refers to the "outside world," one is generally not making reference to that world which can be found in a location that is external to an observable three-dimensional object, but, rather, one is generally referring to some entity or concept that is not at all felt to be related to the speaker. This is parallel, but in contrast, to the concept that one's feelings and abilities are lo- cated somewhere jppppp_of one. This category of forms does not seem to be productive of a wide range of figurative expressions. pppy, ppp_and ppp.cannot be used to express time relationships that are opposite to those expressed by pp, pp_and pp, Most of the expressions that use the form ppp are expres- sions that refer to insanity, unworldliness, or some situation that could be viewed as other than the normal human condition. Expressions such as "He is ppp_pp_his mind“ are different from the following ppp. expressions in that they use a double-prepositional unit: "He is ppp_ 83 his rocker," "That idea is ppp_the wall," "He has been ppp his feet for a while," and "He has gone ppp_the deep end.“ To break away from the use of addictive drugs is "to get ppp_drugs," but addiction could be considered the norm while it is present. Figurative usage in expres- sions that function grammatically as prepositional phrases is quite uncommon, but, at the same time, figurative usage in two-word verbs and in elliptical expressions appears to be much more common. Combination of these forms with other prepositions appears to be almost the rule rather than the exception to the rule, and ppp_pp and ppp_pf_appear to be more common than ppp_and ppp_used alone, in the same way that away from appears to be more common than pppy_alone. Outside is used often without an accompanying preposition when it refers to physical location, and with an accompanying preposition when it refers to a figurative location: "He was standing outside the house"; "He doesn't care about anything outside of his work." Triple prepositional units such as in out of, out into, in off of and out onto are quite commonly used, and they appear to be combinations of an elliptical unit (either due to foreknowledge or to the inexpressibility of the object) and an expressed-object phrase. For example, in the expression "He doesn't know enough to come in out of the rain," it appears that the object of the prepositional form pp_is expressed (perhaps even unexpress- ible), but that "the rain" functions as the object of the prepositional form ppp_pf, The figurative expressions that use pppy, pp: and ppp_in combina- tion with a verb appear to be of both different elliptical types. In an 84 utterance such as "He couldn't get pppy because the handcuffs were too effective," it appears that there is an object to pppy_that would refer to the captor or the place of captivity, but in the utterance "We went to the mountains to get pppy," the object of pppy_could be either some specific situation, or "everything," or some inexpressible entity. When one uses an expression such as "the effects of the drug wore pip," while there is no explicit object to the prepositional form ppp, it can be understood that the taker of the drug would be the "location" from which the effects of the drug departed. In a phrase such as "the attorney tried to throw ppp the opposition by introducing irrelevant information," the object of the preposition ppp_is a little more dif- ficult to define, although it does seem, intuitively, to be quite clear. In an expression like "He wanted to find a girl to take out," the object.of ppp_appears to be some kind of reference to "his" place of residence, but in the phrase "think ppp_that problem," the object of ppp, while it seems to be clear, is quite difficult to summarize or paraphrase. The prepositional forms ppf_and ppp_seem to convey general mean- ings of completion, termination, disappearance and removal. The difference between "to clean the table" and “to clean pp: the table" does not seem to be particularly great, except perhaps that the phrase with ppp_implies as a three-dimensional space, and one may say that a person is pp_church or pp_church, depending on the persepective that is chosen by the speaker. Above, beyond and pypp are not generally used in order to specify a point in time, but pypp_may be used to specify an amount of time that is in excess of a stated amount of time, such as "He worked over two IL. 85 hours, with the meaning that the time expended exceeded two hours. It is also possible to use ppyppp_when referring to a time as a type of limit: "You will not be permitted to stay ppyppp_the first of the month." It does not appear to be possible to talk about an amount of time with ppyppp; "*He worked ppyppp two hours," if it is acceptable at all, appears to mean that he exceeded a two-hour limit. While pypp appears to be used with amounts, it does not appear possible with amounts that are clearly limits: "*You will not be permitted to stay pypp the first of the month.” 'In other types of figurative uses, pppyp, ppyppp_and pypp_appear to be differentiated by the complexity of the object of the preposition, with pppyp generally being used with specific points, ppyppp_with limits, and pypp with complex units. It appears to be acceptable to say that a temperature reading was pppyp_50° but not acceptable to say that a temperature reading was pypp_50°. It appears to be acceptable to say that the tennperature of a room is pypp 500 or pppyp_50°, but the temperature of a room could be considered the all-inclusive com— fort level of the room, or it could be considered the reading on a thermometer. With temperature, ppyppp_seems most appropriate when referring to an increase or decrease in temperature that is in excess of the limits of comfort: It appears to be acceptable to say that the temperature went ppyppp_100°F, although even this seems a little awk- ward. One generally would use pypp_with reference to weight, saying that a person is 20 pounds pyppweight, but pppyp and ppyppp_do not seem to be acceptable in this context. When a person has taken on an excessive amount of work, or has taken on work that demands more 86 time or skill than that individual possesses, one can say that the person is ”pypp his head," but it does not appear to be acceptable to say that the person is ”*pppyp_his head,“ or "*ppyppp_his head." While it is acceptable to say that something is ”_pyppp_the limits of human decency," it does not appear to be acceptable to say that something is ”*pppyp the limits of human decency“ or ”*pypp_the limits of human decency.” When one says that something is "ppyppp_belief," one is not generally saying that that something is more than belief, but that it exceeds the limits of credibility. To say that someone is pppyp_suspicion or pppyp_bribery appears to be a statement that the person's character is such that it would not allow for the collocation of suspicion and bribery with that individual. To say that a person is ppyppp suspicion may imply that the person has already undergone some sort of test, and that any suspicion that might have been present be- fore no longer is present. *Qypp suspicion does not seem to have any recognizable meaning. Common, almost fomulaic expressions such as over and above and above and beyond, imply that there is some difference among these fonns, which would justify their being conjoined by ppp, but they appear to be emphatic forms, and can also be interpreted as forms that are similar enough in meaning to amplify and intensify each other's meanings. Other combinations are possible, with other prepositional forms, but to say that a stock was selling at above the normal rate appears to be more acceptable than to say that the stock was selling *on above the normal rate or *in above the normal rate, or to say that the stock was selling *at beyond the normal rate, or *at over the 87 normal rate. (pp, especially in the figurative use meaning to continue an already-started activity, appears to be most acceptable with ppyppp and pypp, rather than with pppyp: "The meeting went on beyond the regular adjournment time"; "I told my friend to come on over." When pppyp.appears in combination with a verb, but with no ex- pressed object of the preposition, it most often appears to be an omission of an inexpressible entity: "I could hear footsteps on the floor pppyp," In this example, the speaker would presumably mean the floor that was pppyp_him or her. pppyp_can also be used as a reference to the deity, to some superior force, or to heaven, as the residence of a supreme being: "A voice from pppyp_inspired him to act"; "These orders are from pppyp," When ppyppp is used without an object, it generally refers to the location just mentioned or to a reference point that the speaker has made explicit: "From the mountaintop, you could see the valley ppypppf; "We were discouraged because we could see only sand and nothing ppyppg," ppyppp_does not seem to be used when no object is overtly expressed or referred to, such as in "verb-particle" combinations. 9ypp_seems to imply a complete change of position, whether it be the progression from one specific point to another, such as in the expressions come pypp, drive pypp or jump pypp, or the total coverage of a surface, such as in the expression freeze pypp, cover pypp, spread pypp or think pypp, or the completion of an activity, such as the statements that the meeting, play, storm, etc. is pypp, or even movement away from an upright position (fall.over, tip over, push over). Over also may be used in elliptical expressions, usually of the type where the object is obvious but unexpressed: "The fence 88 was high so he helped the young children pyppfl; "We could hear airplanes passing pypp," While there may be figurative meanings attached to compounds formed with pppyp_and pypp, the basic meanings of pppyp_and pypp_do not appear to be altered by the act of combining: overhead still essentially means in a location that is superior to the location of one's head; pppyp: ppppp_is essentially the opposition in meaning to "under the table," in the sense that an action that would be described as aboveboard would not be covert or hidden, or would have no reason to be performed in a covert or hidden fashion. Superiority of Motion: Up, Past, Across, Through A final superiority of location that is connected with, or that is the result of, motion, can be expressed by pp, for locations that are specific and can be compared to a point, by pppp, for linear progression or for motion that exceeds a limit, by pppppp, for collocation on oppo- site sides of a plane or for motion that progresses past the side boundaries of a plane, and by through, for motion that progresses from one side of a solid figure to the other side. pp_generally refers to motion of some kind that results in an in- crease in elevation, such as climbing pp_a ladder, pp_a mountain, pp_a wall, but such motion does not usually cover a very extensive area, being limited to a path, walkway or the treads of a ladder. One can also use pp_to express the idea of a location of increased elevation that is the result of motion: "The cat is pp_the tree." Ep§p_is used to express motion that proceeds beyond the stated limit: "The parade went pppp_the house." Eppp_can also be used to express location at a distance that is greater than another distance: "The pizza shop is 89 pppp the bus station." In this last example, it is usually necessary to specify direction of motion, such as ”heading west on Grand River Avenue." pppppp_is used to express movement that proceeds from one side of a planar boundary to another: “They walked across the street.” pppppp can be used to express the location of one entity that is on a planar boundary that is opposite to another: “His office is pppppp the hall from mine." Through is used to express motion from one boundary of a solid to another boundary: ”He made his way through the room.” Through can also be used to express location that is the result of motion, or that can be reached by means of motion: “You'll find his office through the second door.” With points of time, usually hours (and not more specific than a half-hour or quarter-hour measurement), pppp can be used: ”It was pppp three before we got there.” The non-specific nature of the time implies that the time is being considered a limit or boundary, rather than the point-like measurement ”it is 3:10 P.M.” pppppp and through appear to be able to be used with units of time such as years, decades, centuries, etc.: ”Acrgss the years I have watched the town change”; "This knowledge has been passed down through the centuries.” In other figurative uses, pp_appears to be restricted to specific locations: ”That job was right pp_his alley”; ”He had made the wrong choice and found himself pp_a creek.” Ep§p_seems to be used to express the exceeding of discernible limits: ”He was pppp_caring about any- thing.“ pppppp and through seem to appear more with verbs in verb— particle combinations than to appear in prepositional phrases with expressed figurative objects: "We became acquainted pppppp the dinner table”; ”We met through a mutual friend.” 90 In verb plus prepositional form combinations, across and through seem to be most commonly used in combination with verbs of motion or successful achievement, such as pppp, pp_and gpp, To come pppp§§_with something is to produce that something at an appropriate time and place, and this is essentially the same as the interpretation of to come through with something. To come pppppp or to get through to someone means to be able to convey an idea or a belief in such a way that it is accepted by the listener. In many of these figurative uses, the un- stated object of the preposition appears to be an indefinable concept: What is the ”territory” that one must traverse in order to make another person understand an idea? What is the nature of the territory that one must cross in order to be able to produce a needed entity at an appro- priate time and place, and to a needing person? - Eppp appears to be limited primarily to use in contexts that make the unexpressed object of the prepositional form somewhat obvious in nature: “We watched the parade as it went ppppf; ”He wanted to join us then, but the time for such an action was already pppp,” pp appears to be able to express either increase in quantity or in quality, or a completive type of meaning. In quite a few of the cases in which_pp is used in combination with a verb, pp_can be considered a superfluous element, the addition of which adds nothing but emphasis to the meaning of the utterance. To fill pp_a glass is not semantical- ly different from to fill a glass; to light pp_a room does not appear to be significantly different from lighting a room; to wrap pp_a pack- age does not seem to be at all different from wrapping a package. Substituting the word ”completely” in many of these expressions provides an indication of the type of information that is conveyed by the 91 addition of the word pp, The "increase" that is expressed by the addition of pp.to a verbal entity could be the kind of increase that begins with non-existence and ends with existence: to "bring pp? a topic in a conversation is to introduce that topic when it was not previously in the conversation; when something "rises pp," it can be thought to have appeared, and to have not been present or visible prior to the time being considered. pp_appears to be extremely common in usage, and to have the potential for being combined with an extremely large number of items. It seems to have a restriction in that it does not usually combine with forms that have any implications of decrease or disappearance. "*To descend pp? does not appear to be possible, but a combination like "to raise pp," while it may include a redundant item, is possible. In some expressions, pp_and pppp.appear to be interchange- able: "to go pp_a street" is the same for some speakers as "to go pppp; a street," unless the direction of motion includes an incline or grade of some sort, in which case, pp_must be used with reference to the in- creasing elevation and pppp_must be used with reference to the decreas- ing elevation. pp_appears quite freely in sequential combinations with other prepo- sitional farms. "He was standing pp_pp_the front of the line" implies a superior position; "There were a lot of flowers up along the fence" im- plies that the flowers were not very far away from the fence; "She was sitting pp_pp.a tree limb" seems to designate a greater-than-normal altitude of the location; "We couldn't see what was happening M the control room" implies that the control room was at a higher alti- tude than the speaker. These sequences, and many others, seem to be possible both with a "literal" meaning of increase or quantitative 92 superiority (as well as qualitative superiority), and with a figurative meaning of completion ("We finished pp_pp_an hour"/"to fill pp_pp_gas"). Past, across and through do not seem to combine as freely as pp_ does, and a large number of compounded words exist that contain pp rather than any of the other forms in this category. Upstairs can func- tion as either an adverb of location or as a noun. pppppg.can function as either an adverb of location or as an adjective. pplppp can function as either a verb or a noun. In these forms, and in virtually all other similar forms, pp_seems to have the augmentative or completive proper- ties that are conveyed by pp_as a preposition or as the prepositional form of a verb-particle combination. Inferiority: Below, Down, Beneath, Under In opposition to the indicators of superior location, pplpp_indi- cates inferiority of location, pppp_indicates inferiority of location as the result of, or in combination with, motion, both of these forms (pplpp_and pppp) operating in conditions where the expressed or unex- pressed object of the preposition can be imagined as a point. Beneath functions as the marker of inferior position with respect to a line or a limit, and ppppp_serves as the marker of inferior position to a planar or solid entity. In describing the location of a book, for example, one might say that the book was located on the shelf pplpp_the dictionary, but if giving directions to another person who was looking at the higher rather than the lower shelves, one would tell the person to look pppp_ one shelf. It sounds odd to say that the book would be beneath the dictionary (although this may sound perfectly natural to some speakers of English), but it sounds natural to say that the book is under the 93 dictionary, especially if the books are lying on their sides, rather than their edges. In a library, in which category markings might be expected, telling the person to look pplpp, beneath or ppppp the non- fiction category label all seem to be possible, but, as with other prepositional forms, this could be the result of being able to per- ceive the label as a point, a limit or as the boundary of a category, when a category is conceived of as a multidimensional or complex entity. In figurative usages that concern time, ppppp appears to be the only one of these forms that can be used, and it appears to be used only with amounts of time: ”They did the job in ppppp_two hours.‘I In referring to temperature, to say that the temperature was pplpp_200 is to approximately locate the temperature with reference to a specific reading, but to say that the temperature was pppp_200 is to mark the amount of decrease that occurred over a given time, or to mark the dis— crepancy between an expected and an achieved temperature. It is also possible to say that a temperature is ppppp 200, but this could be the result of the perception of temperature not only as a measurement on a specific scale, but also as a manner of expressing the presence or ab— sence of comfort in a given environment. Other figurative expressions using pplpp, pppp, beneath and ppppp include expressions such as ”pplpp_par, which seems to have been taken from sporting terminology as a whole, and adapted for use in describing physical state. "Par" has been adapted from the meaning of a normal or average score to the meaning of feeling normally good; as a score, par is given a numerical value, and pplpp is appropriate with it as a point on a scale of scores. Saying that someone is ”under the weather“ expresses the same essential meaning as “below par,” but weather is not something 94 that can be conceived as easily as a point. The preposition pppp_appears to have completive implications that are similar to those conveyed by pp, but pppp_appears to convey nega— tive connotations that are not usually present when pp_is used. pppp also conveys the ideas of decrease in quantity or quality and of decom- position. To break pppp_something is to reduce a complex unit to its component parts, and to slow pppp is to cause a decrease in velocity. pplpp and beneath do not appear as commonly in verb-particle units as do pppp_and ppppp, and none of these four prepositional forms appears as frequently in verb-particle combinations as do the indicators of superiority of position, u , pypp, pppp§§_and through. As markers of location, pppp_and ppppp appear to be different enough in meaning that they can be combined with each other, as well as being combined with various other units, to arrive at a precise definition of location or motion: ”He went down under the house to check the flooring”; "They couldn't get out from under the oppressor”; ”They came down out of the loft“; “She climbed down into the deep hole.” Many of the compounded words that are formed with ppppp_do not seem to be closely related to the meaning of ppppp; understand, under— go, undertake, Others have a clear relationship with the meaning of ppppp: underrate, underrun, underestimate, underscore. The compounded words formed with pppp_generally appear to have a discernible relation- ship with the meaning of pppp; downturn, downgrade, rundown, broken— down, downhearted, etc. Neither pplpp_nor beneath seems to be very productive in terms of compoundings. 95 Approximate Equivalence: About, Alongside, Beside(s), Around For expressing approximate equivalence, ppppp_can be used when the point of reference is a point, alongside can be used with reference to parallel location or location near a line, pppjpp_can be used with refer- ence to a plane (besides is generally considered more appropriate when used with additive or exceptive meanings, but it is also commonly inter- changed with pppjpp), and pppppp can be used to express approximate equality of location with reference to a solid figure, often something circular in shape. ppppp_is not commonly used in contemporary standard American English to express physical location that is approximately equivalent, but it is used to express figurative location that is approximately equivalent, and it is used with numerical values, to express approximate equivalence. It appears to be quite common to combine ppppp_and pp, rather than using pp alone, to more precisely express a physical location: "I was about at the finish line when he overtook me." ppppp_can be used to express approximate time or percentages: "They'll start ppppp_5:00"; "We had the support of ppppp_50% of the voters." Figurative location that is approximate can be rendered by ppppp; "He was ppppp_as conservative as anyone could be." Alongside appears to be used most commonly with figures that are linear or with motion along parallel paths: "The flowers were planted alongside the road"; "He pulled alongside the truck." pppjpp appears to convey the idea that the approximate location does not extend beyond the boundaries of a plane: "There was a garage pppipp.the house"; "There was an apple lying pppjpp_the pear." There is no implication that the entity that serves as the object of the 96 preposition is surrounded by the other entity, even if both are three- dimensional figures. The three-dimensional character of the objects is not the pertinent characteristic in the relationship. pppppp, on the other hand, allows the location to extend in any direction, and even to surround, the object of the preposition: "There were apples pppppg_the tree"; "The flies were buzzing pppppp_the picnic basket"; "They have a fence pppppp their yard." In this last example, - the implication is that the fence is on all four sides of the yard area, which would not be the implications of "They had a fence beside (or alongside) their house," which would give one the mental image of a L fence on one side of the house. Alongside and pppppp_do not appear to be commonly used in figura— tive expressions, and when besides is used, it usually carries the meaning "in addition to." pppppp_does not appear to be commonly used in figurative expres- sions with an explicit object of the preposition, but it is commonly used with verbs, usually with the implications of non-directed activity: "He went pppppp_town looking for a job"; "They hung pppppp_at the drug- ‘store"; "I'll do that when I get pppppp_to it." pppppp_can also be used with numerical values, such as time, temperature and percentages: "pppppp_50% of the old employees are due to retire"; "The temperature was pppppp_80 all day"; "He said we could meet pppppp_5:00." This could be considered a partially figurative usage, in that a percentage represents a group as well as a numerical value assignment, a tempera- ture can represent a level of comfort, or an ambiance, as well as a point on a scale of measurement, and time, especially a specific time, can be viewed from before, during or after, as well as being viewed as 97 a Specific point. The precise difference between ppppp and pppppp, used with refer- ence to time expressions, is hard to capture. While it is possible to say ”This growth continued ppppp_a century,“ it sounds quite odd to say “This growth continued pppppp_a century.” At the same time, how- ever, it sounds equally good to say "This growth continued for about a century" and ”This growth continued for around a century.” Apparent- ly, both ppppp_and pppppp can be used to convey the concept of approxi- mation, and both are acceptable in most contexts. ppppp and pppppp, with the meaning ”approximately," can be com- bined sequentially with other prepositions: “The bill came to around $50" or ”The bill came to about $50.” pppppp, with the meaning of non-directed activity, can be combined with pppppp, pppil, pp, pipp, pppigp, and others: ”They were ambling around toward the river”; "They hung around until closing”; ”He never gets around to doing that”; "They wandered around with whoever was free”; “He goes around with a bad crowd.” In some dialects of English, ppppp can be used in these con- texts, but in other dialects, it might be unacceptable. While ppppp_and pppppp may not be as precisely limited as this description would imply, they do both convey the meaning of approximate equality, both in physical location and in figurative location. Approaching Equivalence (Location): Before, Until, In Front Of, Near The prepositional forms in this category convey the idea of the sub- ject of the preposition being located elsewhere, but undergoing a change, or subject to the possibility of a change, that would result in the col- location of the subject and the object. These prepositions include two 98 that are primarily, but not exclusively, used with reference to time. The passage of time is one-directional, so that anything that is loca- ted in such a way as to approach a mentioned time must occur prior to that time. pppppp introduces an object that is specific and defined, and that exists essentially as a point: "pppppp_3:00, we were ready to leave" or "We had to pack pppppp_leaving." Even when it is used to in- troduce a sentence pppppp_locates one activity prior to another in time: ( "We got dressed before they arrived." Until does not locate an activity at one point, but rather, indicates that the activity continued over a period of time, the end limit of which is expressed by the object of the i preposition: "I doodled pppjl_they were ready to leave"; "I didn't get up pppil_noon"; "They drove pppil_they found a gas station." In these examples, the nature of the object of the preposition is not linear, but it functions as the limit for the described activity. pppppp and pppil_can also be used in expressions other than time: "It's the first house ppfppp_the tracks" and "Keep going straight ppppl the tracks, then turn right." In these examples, the tracks are a point of reference, serving as a point of comparison from which the "first house" can be measured in the sentence with pppppp, and serving as the limit for the activity in the sentence with pppjl, It seems unlikely that pppjl_could be used with an unexpected object, since the setting of a limit requires the expression of that limit, but pppppp_seems to be used without an expressed object when that object would be "now" or when the object is obvious from the con- text: "He bought her a present, even though he had never done that ppppppf or "I've neven been to Niagara Falls pppppp," Neither pppppp_ nor until combine freely with verbal units, in verb-particle combinations, 99 except for limited-usage expressions such as "to go before a judge or court of law." In front of and pppp_do not generally refer to time, but to phys- ical location of the subject with reference to the object. In front of refers to the single plane that is facing the speaker, or to the single plane that is considered commonly to be the ”front” of the object of the preposition. Nppp can refer to any plane or to all planes, regard- less of orientation of the speaker or the entity. Both of these units can be combined sequentially with other prepo- sitions, in order to define location precisely: "He‘s out in front of the building" or "He's up near the building.” Neither in front of or pppp_combine freely with verb units in verb- particle combinations, but pppp_can be used without an object, and pp ppppp (without pp) can be used without an object, when the object is obvious or has already been expressed: "He's standing right out pp pppppf or ”The squireel was too afraid to come pppp." Nppp_is also used to mean “approximately” when combined with num- bers or with concepts that are usually not approximate: ”She got near 50% of the votes" or ”It was a near miss.” Near also can be used as a verb that means ”to approach": “As they neared the corner, they slowed down." Approaching Equivalence (Motion): To, Toward, Onto, Into The forms in this category are used with subjects of the preposi- tions that are located other than with the object of the preposition, but that undergo motion or change that is expected to result in equiv- alence of the location of the subject and the object of the preposition. 100 pp is used for objects that can be conceived of as a point, pppppp_with objects that are linear or that function as the limits of motion, pppp_ with planar objects or with surfaces, and pppp with three-dimensional or complex units that are the object of the preposition. pp, pppp_and pppp_imply attainment of the objective, in that the subject not only approaches the object, but achieves collocation with the object of the preposition. pppppp, while it conveys approaching the object, does not presuppose attainment of the object. In general, these forms do not appear without an object, with the exception of a few verb-particle combinations with pp; ”To come pp} may be considered an elliptical expression, with the unexpressed object being ”consciousness.” pp also functions as a grammatical marker, indi— cating the indirect object (usually a human being or animate being), and marking the infinitive form of a verb. When contrasted with ppp, pp serves to mark the goal of an activity, and ppp_marks the purpose or reason for the activity: ”We decided pp_save money ppp a vacation." pp_is also used to mark verbal character of deleted information: ”He doesn't buy anything he doesn't need” versus "He doesn't buy anything if he doesn't need to.” The most active of these forms is pp, but they are all commonly used in both everyday speech and formal speech and writing. Withdppping from Equivalence of Location: After, Since, Behind, (Far?) There does not seem to be a prepositional form that contrasts with near, but when a contrast is desired, ppp_is generally the form that is selected, so it has been included as a questionable contrasting item, but will not be considered a prepositional form. 101 The three prepositional forms in this category are ppppp, ppppp and pppppp, with the first two of these functioning primarily, but not exclusively, as markers of time. In contrast to ppfppp, pfppr locates the subject subsequent to the object of the preposition, with the ob- ject a point in time, specific and definite in nature. In contrast to ppppp, ppppp marks the beginning limit of an action, and assumes that the action continues indefinitely subsequent to this beginning point or limit. Similar to pppppp and ppppp, both pfppp and ppppp_can be used with overt expressions of time, with actions or activities that func— tion as markers of time; ppppp can be used with locations: ”He came ppppp 3:00”; ”We left ppppp we had finished packing"; ”They have been ready to leave since 3 00"; ”They have been arguing since they heard about the accident”; ”Theirs is the first house after the tracks.” As with ppfppp, ppppp_can be used to express rank or precedence, which is not markedly different from the precedence of time: ”ppppp liberty, there is nothing more I could want." Both ppppp and ppppp_can be used in elliptical phrases, when the object is not expressed because it is obvious or because it has already been mentioned: "We waited for the tirade that always came ppppp”; ”He studied then, but he hasn't studied pppppf; "I used to see him quite often, but I haven't seen him ppppp," ppppp does not appear to be used with verbs in verb-particle com- binations, but ppppp appears in a few combinations. "To go ppppp someone“ could be interpreted to mean following someone by chance, following someone deliberately, or attacking someone: "B goes ppppp A in the alphabet”; "He had dropped his wallet, so I went after him 102 to return it"; "He had surprised a burglar, who went ppppp him with a knife." In preposition sequences, ppppp appears to be most commonly fol- lowed by about, around and up to: "After about an hour, we left"; "After around a week, they began to look for him in earnest"; "After up to seven hours of waiting, we were all impatient." Since can be followed by about, around, before and after: "I haven't seen him since about (around) an hour ago"; "He hasn't been here since before the war"; "No one has seen him since after the performance." pppppp_does not generally refer to time, but to physical location, referring to that side or plane of a figure that is out of the range of vision of the speaker, or that is commonly considered the “back" of a figure. The object of the preposition generally represents an obstacle or barrier to vision, and is located between the subject of the sen- tence and the subject of the preposition: "I couldn't see him because he was standing pppppp_a partition." pppppp_can be used in elliptical phrases, when the object of the preposition is known or has already been mentioned, but it does not appear to be commonly used in combination with verbs to form verb- particle structures: "He didn't want to look back at the pursuers coming up pppppp," pppppp_appears to be able to function as a complete description of location: "They hit him from pppppp," In this example, pppppp may be functioning as an elliptical phrase, and it would sound redundant, but not strange, to add an object after the pppppp_in the previous example. 103 Withdrawing from Equivalpppe (Motion): From, Away From, Off Of, Out Of When the subject of the preposition is in motion or is undergoing change, so that the subject and the object end up in non—equal loca— tions, and the subject is engaged in motion or change that increases the differences between them, fppp_may be used with reference to a point or to a specific and well—defined object, away from may be used when the object is linear or serves as a limit, ppfppp may be used when the object is a surface or a planar entity, and ppp_pp_may be used when the object is solid or of complex character. Both ppf_pp_and ppp_pp_seem to be virtually identical to ppp_and ppp, with the exception that pppppf and ppp_pp cannot be used without the object of the preposition, in the same way that pppp_and pppp_can- not be used unless the object of the preposition is expressed. In examining the component elements of these prepositional forms, pp_and pp_are used to express equivalence of location, and pp: and ppp are used to express non-equivalence of location; to these forms, pp_is added (to pp and pp), and pp_alone is used to express approaching equivalence, and pi is added (to ppf and ppp) and pp is used to ex- press conjunction of location (p. 106). In all of these cases, the resultant equivalence or non-equivalence is mentioned first, followed by the original state of approaching equivalence or of conjunction of location. Without mentioning the original place in which the approach or conjunction was true, there is little point in expressing the con- cept of approach or conjunction (one would not say ”the cat got out of"). These forms, then, rather than expressing unique concepts, ex— press combinations of concepts that can be isolated from each other and expressed separately. 104 Away from is also a composite form, being the combination of pppy as an expression of non-equivalence of location as a result of motion or change, with respect to an object of the preposition that is speci- fic enough to be considered a point, and pppp, as an expression of withdrawing from equivalence or conjunction of location. The only truly independent member of this category is pppp, the expression of withdrawing from equivalence or from conjunction of loca- i tion. fppp, like the other forms that express approach to or withdrawal from equivalence or conjunction of location, cannot generally be used A without an expressed object of the preposition. What follows fppp_can be either a noun phrase that indicates location, or a prepositional phrease that indicates location: ”He got up pppp_the chair" or ”He got up pppp in the chair.” fppp_can often serve as a substitute for pppppp or ppp_pp, but pppp_sounds awkward when used in combination with them: ”He jumped off of the cliff” or ”He jumped from the cliff”; "She came ppp_pp the other room” or ”She came pppp_the other room“; *“He jumped from off of the cliff" or “She came from out of the other room.” Eppp feels most appropriate when it follows pppy, pp or pppp; ”He came pppy pppp_the door”; ”He came up from the basement” and ”He came down from the attic.” From also seems most appropriate when it is followed by some simple prepositional form that indicates position, such as along, pp, pp, above, beyond, over, below, beneath, under, etc.: "Those flowers are from along the fence”; "Take the glass from on the table”; ”The water was dripping on them from above their heads” and ”The new settlers came from over the mountains.” fppp_can also be found more or less in tandem with pp, to express both origin point and goal of activ— ity, motion or change: "They walked from Detroit pp_Lansing“; ”They 105 looked it over pppp beginning pp_and"; "The temperature went from 800 pp_60o in less than an hour." fppp, as the only independent (uncombined) member of this category, is the basic marker of withdrawal from equivalence or conjunction of location. Oisjunction: Opposite, Against The forms opposite and against are expressions of disjunction in that they express the lack of combination, the separateness, the dis- tinction or the alternative character of the subject and the object of the preposition. Opposite appears to be the form that is used in one- to-one relationships, such as in "He sat opposite me at the table" or "They live opposite the theater." Given two parallel lines, such as the curbs of a street, opposite expresses location of the subject on one side, and of the object on the alternative side. Against implies a more complex sort of distinction or separation: "The people fought against the army" or "I am against his re-election." The implications of these two forms are not that there is no rela- tionship that exists between them, but that the character of the rela- tionship is adversarial, or one of distinction of character. It is difficult to incorporate against, in expressions such as "the ladder was against the house" into the proposed prepositional descrip- tion, unless one interprets them to mean that the house and the ladder were separate entities, only momentarily collocated, or unless one visualizes some sort of opposition of physical forces. Conjunction (Location): Of, By, For The forms pp, py_and ppp_express the conjoining of the subject and the object of the preposition. pp is used to express the conjoining of 106 two specific, definite, point-like entities, py_is used to express the conjoining of two entities that are linear (or joined by means of some linear property), or to express the conjoining of two entities over time (as a linear background) or duing the process of motion or change, and ppp_is used to express the conjoining of two complex or multi- dimensional entities: "A desk made pp_wood," "A desk made py_hand," and "A desk made ppp office use." These prepositional forms do not convey the same idea that is conveyed by equivalence forms, since they only state that the two entities are together in some way, or have some type of non-adversarial relationship with each other. pp is commonly used to indicate possession, ties of locational or familial origin, or description by means of salient characteristics: "That is a book pp_mine" (essentially equivalent to "That is my book"), "He is a long-time resident pp_this city," "This is Bill Jones, pp_the Joneses from (of) Hill Creek," or "He is a man pp_few words." py_is commonly used to express mode or manner of production ("made py_hand"), mode or manner of transportation ("py_bus, py_car"), acciden- tal, proximate collocation ("He sat py_me on the bus"), and the agent by whom (or by which) an action was performed or executed ("He was criticized py_his boss" or "He earned his money py_working"). fpp_is commonly used to express the reason or purpose that causes an action ("He did it pppooney"), the recipient of the benefits of an action ("He did it ppp_his sister"), the substitute employment of an item to serve a temporary purpose ("He used the paperweight ppp_an ash- tray"), or the entity that is offered in exchange for another ("I'll trade this marble ppp_that one of yours"). pp_and ppp_are not generally used without an expressed object of 107 the preposition, and when py_is used without an object of the preposi- tion, the object is usually the speaker or some previously-mentioned location: "I saw him run pyf or "The policemen wanted to make sure that he didn't slip py," "To get pyf with the meaning of "to survive ade- quately, but without comfort or convenience or with the meaning of "to perform adequately well, but not in a superior or commendable manner" is one of the few verb-particle combinations that can be formed with the preposition py, pp_and ppp do not seem to be commonly used in verb- particle units. Conjunction (Motion): With, By, During, Throughout pppp_is used to indicate the conjoining in location, during the process of motion or change, or over time, of two separate and dis- tinguishable entities. To say that one person is pppp_another is not to say that they are friends, or that they are socially connected to each other, but only to make an observation about their conjunction in a place or at a time. py, as was discussed in the section before (p. 106), can be used to express conjunction of location over time or with motion, as well as simple conjunction of location. (pppppg_ex- presses conjunction at at least one time within the stated period of time, or conjunction with at least one aspect of a stated activity: "Loud noises were made pppppg_the performance" or "_ppppg_the ride, we got jostled regularly." pppppg_identifies the limits of the activ- ity, and the limits between which the conjunction occurred, but it does not indicate that the conjoining was continuously present inside of those limits, nor does it indicate precisely the point or points at which the conjoining took place. Throughout (which appears to be a com- bination of the meaning of through plus the completive aspect of the 108 form ppp), not only sets the beginning and ending limits of an action or activity, but also indicates that the conjunction was at all points, and in all aspects of the activity or action: "Loud noises were made throughout the performance" or "Throughout the ride, we got jostled." Except for the cases noted above with py_(p. 106), with, during, and throughout do not generally occur without an expressed object of the preposition, and they do not generally occur with verbs in verb- particle units. In some dialects of English, "come pppp? or “go ppppf can be used without an object, and they are assigned the meaning "ac- company." Reciprocity; Between, Among, Within The concept of "reciprocity," when applied to a single entity, is often expressed by a reflexive form ("He talked to himself") rather than by a prepositional form. Between is used to express reciprocity between two points, units or entities. This could be the reciprocity of mutual activity ("The talked about it between themselves"), or the existence of distance (literal or figurative) separating each of two entities from a third entity ("The rock was between the two trees"). When the two en- tities that enter into this relationship are not of the same kind, they are generally both mentioned after the preposition between, and con- nected to each other by ppp; "The car was parked between the lamppost ppp_the fireplug." ppppg_appears to be used to express reciprocity or the existence of distance with more than two units, but it also implies that the activity occurs along a single plane, and does not extend into all dimensions: "They talked ppppg_themselves" (not to other people who were not part of the group) or "There was disagreement ppppg_the rank and file of the workers" (but not at other levels, such as 109 management). (pppppp appears to express reciprocity or the existence of distance at all levels, and including all dimensions: "They wanted no spies pppppp_the group" or "There was dissatisfaction pppppp_the company." Between, among and within all seem to be used both for expressing physical location and for expressing figurative location. They do not generally appear without an object, and are not generally used in the formation of verb-particle units, with the exception that pppppp_can be used as a slightly-more-formal synonym for pppppp, and, in this meaning, can be used without an object in the same contexts in which pppppp_can be used without an object: "He kept all of his secrets ppppppf or "They were accustomed to hiring from within." No Relationship: Excppt, Apart From, Aside From, Without In the final category of prepositional forms are the items that are used to indicate that no relationship exists between the subject and the object of the preposition. Generally, they are used in con- texts where a relationship might be expected to exist, and they mark the fact that the expected relationship does not exist. gypppp_is used when the object of the preposition is uni-dimensional, specific or point-like in nature: "Everyone pppppp_Bill came to the party" or "He answered everything except the question." Apart from appears to be used when the object of the preposition is more complex than a single unit, and the subject of the preposition is a single unit: "He was standing apart from the crowd" or "He never had any interests apart from his family." When both entities are complex, aside from seems to be more appr0priate: "Aside from what I told him, he knows nothing." 110 Both apart from and aside from are composite forms, and they appear to be interchangeable for some speakers of English, or to be more formal than pppppp and without (rather than different from pypppp and without in meaning or application), and it is difficult to justify too rigid a distinction being made between them. Without suggests the exclusion of one entity or individual from a group, or the exclusion of a character- istic or trait from the makeup of an individual or a group: “They didn't want to leave without Bill”; ”He left without warning”; ”He is completely without compassion”; or “The are without the funds they need to pursue their programs.” Without is the only one of these forms that appears to be used without an expressed object, and without commonly appears in the verb- particle combination ”do without," meaning to lack. pppppp_and without can often be used in similar contexts, but they do not convey the same meaning: ”He didn't want to go pppppp_to talk to them” implies that "he“ did not want to go unless it were possible to talk to “them“ and ”He didn't want to go without talking to them” implies that he did not want to depart until after he had had an oppor- tunity to talk to them. ”He couldn't do anything pppppp talk” implies that his only competence was talking, but ”He couldn't do anything pppp: ppp_talking“ implies that he was able to do things, but his actions were always accompanied by talk. CHAPTER IV CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR EMPIRICAL RESEARCH Since the available grammatical descriptions do not seem to be adequate for classroom use, and alternative presentation of information concerning English prepositional forms is developed for this use, and the framework for the system, and the means by which the various prepo— sitional forms could be integrated into this framework, is explored. The available grammatical descriptions, both those designed for use in the classroom and those designed for theoretical use, are judged on the basis of the seven criteria that are selected as the essential characteristics that would be necessary for a description that could be put to use in a classroom. The alternative proposal (PP. 56-110) is evaluated below on the basis of these criteria, to determine the degree to which it conforms to the requirements of the criteria. Conformity of Proposed System to the Selected Criteria The seven criteria that are proposed as essential for a presenta- tion of grammatical information that could be used in adult second- language classroom are accuracy, completeness, comprehensibility, range, generality, simplicity and providing a definitional presentation. Each of these criteria is examined to determine whether or not the alterna- tive proposal complies with the requirements of these criteria. 111 112 Accuracy The criterion of accuracy stipulates that the description must not distort the functioning rules of the language, in that the guidelines that it presents for the formulation of utterances must not produce ob- viously ungrammatical utterances, and in that it must not contain inac- curacies in the most general infonnation. As far as the writer can detect, this presentation does not include guidelines that would misguide the language learner and induce the pro- duction of ungrammatical utterances, nor does it contain inaccuracies in the most general information. It is true that this presentation does not include all possible occurrences of the prepositional forms (e.g., ”The ladder was against the wall"), but at least some of these occurrences appear to be forms that are idiomatic in nature, and although very possibly they were systematic at some time in the past, even though they do not appear to be consistent with the proposed system presented here. Completeness The criterion of completeness requires of a description that it contain information about at least twenty of the simple prepositional forms and that it contain information about composite as well as simple forms. This presentation addresses itself primarily to the consideration of simple prepositional forms, and views the composite and phrasal prepositional forms as entities that can, in general, be derived by application of the guidelines for interpretation of the simple forms. In the case of some forms that are composites, but which have been 113 included in this presentation, an analysis is provided to demonstrate how composite units can be understood by the analysis of the component parts (cf., p. 103, ppipf, 99M; Mend pppp). Phrasal prepositional forms that are combinations of nouns or adjectives and one or more prepositional forms can also be understood by means of an analysis of their component parts. This presentation covers fifty-three prepositional forms, forty- five of which are one—word items, and provides some information about the formation and analysis of composite forms in that composite forms such as pppp, ppp_pp, etc. can be understood by adding together the separate forms' meanings. This presentation appears to fulfill the requirements of the criterion of completeness. Comprehensibility The criterion of comprehensibility demands of a presentation that it be intellectually accessible to a language teacher, that it not use intricate symbol systems, and that it not use uncommon or little-known symbol systems. This presentation is based on common mathematical symbols, and on symbols used in various scientific fields, as well as on geometric forms that are interpreted in their "unschooled" meaning rather than in mathematically-defined meanings. To all appearances, this presentation would be accessible to any- one who possessed a basic knowledge of some of the common symbols, and the ability to understand figurative applications of these symbols. There is no special terminology, with the exception of several commonly- known grammatical terms which have been extended in their application. 114 In the estimation of the writer, this presentation adequately ful- fills the requirements of the criterion of comprehensibility. Range The ”range" of a presentation would be the diversity of the types of real-life situations to which the presented structures would be ap— propriate. The criterion of range specifies that the structures that are included should be ones that are useful in a wide range of styles or of varieties. While some notice has been given to structures that may be accept- able in limited contexts and situations, the primary focus of this presentation is those common forms that are used in almost all levels of communication in the English language. Uncommonly-used forms have been avoided, and expressions that are generally found in extremely formal speech have been largely ignored. To all appearances, this presentation fulfills the requirements of the criterion of range. Generality The criterion of generality stipulates that all forms that are identical in appearance should be classed together, regardless of dif- ference in grammatical function, and regardless of apparent difference in meaning. This presentation attempts to fulfill the requirements of this criterion by classing together the literal and figurative phrases in which prepositional forms appear, the adverbial usages of preposition- al forms, the prepositional forms that appear in combination with verbs in what are called verb-particle combinations, and the prepositional 115 forms that are used to form part of compounded words. In addition, this presentation makes every attempt to indicate how forms such as pp, inside, into and pppppp_are related to each other, since they all contain an element that appears to be identical, and this presentation attempts to demonstrate the similarities among such forms as pp, toward, onto and pppp, since they all contain an element that appears to be identical. Every attempt is made, either in the explanation of the categories, or in the format of the summary chart, to class all forms into cate- gories that demonstrate the similarity in meaning that may exist among forms that are identical in appearance, as well as the difference in meaning that may exist among such forms. Simplicity_ The criterion of simplicity demands that the presentation group together all items that appear to serve a similar or identical semantic function. ~ In this presentation, not only do all "ppf forms appear in a single class (with the exception of in front of), but also, in the body of the explanation, an attempt is made to show that forms such as pp_opp and pp_oprpcp may be interchangeable (p. 97) and that forms such as ppf_pf_ and pp_pfl can be replaced by pppp (P- 104). This, it would seem, satisfies the criterion of simplicity, in that it classes together those forms that appear to serve a single semantic function (even when such forms are not identical in appearance). 116 Definitional Presentation The criterion of providing a definitional presentation requires that the description provide some type of guide that will aid students 'in understanding the concepts that English-speaking people associate with the prepositional forms that they use. This presentation attempts to provide symbols that are likely to be understood by adult students from a variety of different backgrounds, and to use line drawings and geometric shapes, rather than words, to give information about the meanings of prepositional forms. This pre- sentation also attempts to make use of oppositions that are likely to be known and understood by adults from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The presentation is organized on the basis of meaning, rather than grammatical function, in the hope that this type of organization would also help the students in understanding the concept-form correlations that appear to be being used by native speakers of English. For this reason, it appears that this presentation fulfills the re- quirements of the criterion of providing a definitional presentation. Conclusions Concerning the Proposed Alternative Presentation Inasmuch as this presentation does seem to fulfill the requirements of the selected criteria, the presentation is acceptable for use in an adult second-language classroom. The writer, as a native speaker of English, feels that the system essentially captures the concepts that are conveyed by the prepositional forms in English. This presentation is not sufficient, in and of itself, for class- room use, but must be supplemented by carefully-prepared materials that both elaborate on the concepts that are summarized in this presentation, 117 and that guide the students toward a full understanding of at least the most-commonly-used of the prepositional forms. It is the writer's opinion that students learn language information by attempting to use the forms that they study, and not simply by being given presentations of information about those forms. This presentation of information about English prepositional forms, while it has been carried far enough to form the basis for the produc- tion of classroom materials, has not been carried far enough to justify itself theoretically. This, however, is the province of theoretical linguists, and would not be of particular benefit to a language teacher or to language students. Suggestions for Empirical Research As was stated earlier (p. 4), the only true test of the adequacy and appropriateness of instructional materials is empirical research. Prior to research, however, must come the formulation of materials that capture the essence of the concepts contained in this presentation of information. Once these materials have been formulated, it would be possible to set up a research plan that would allow for a comparison of the perform— ance of students who had used these materials and students who had used materials that were different in content, or in format, or in both, from the materials that were based on this presentation. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Bennett, David C. 1968. ”English Prepositions: A Stratificational Approach.” reprinted in Adam Makkai and David G. Lockwood. 1973. Readings in Stratificational Linguistics. University, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press. Brend, Ruth M., editor. 1974. Advances in Tagmemics. 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