| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
| |
| PREPOSITION 2, PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE |
| |
| |
| Prepositions are parts of speech, single words or compounds with both grammatical and lexical meanings: of, for, by, in, within, in spite of, and inside of are examples of prepositions. A preposition is one of a nearly finite list of function words we use to head structures called prepositional phrases. The preposition introduces such a phrase and serves to (1) govern the object of the preposition and its modifiers, if any, and (2) direct the grammatical force of the entire phrase as a structure of modification, of either a word or a structure immediately preceding or of the rest of the sentence following the phrase. In He wore a hat with a red feather, with is the preposition introducing the phrase with a red feather (of which feather is the object) and making the entire phrase act adjectivally to modify the noun hat. In In spring the flowers bloom, in is the preposition, spring is the object, and since the phrase is at the beginning of the sentence, it acts adverbially as a sentence adverb modifying the entire main clause, the flowers bloom. | 1 |
| |
| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
