PREPOSITION (preposisi)
What is a Preposition?
The book is on the table.
The book is beneath the table.
The book is leaning against the table.
The book is beside the table.
She held the book over the table.
She read the book during class.
The children climbed the mountain without fear.
There was rejoicing throughout the land when the government was defeated.
The spider crawled slowly along the banister.
The dog is hiding under the porch because it knows it will be punished for chewing up a new pair of shoes.
The screenwriter searched for the manuscript he was certain was somewhere in his office.
Etymologically, preposition derived from two words,
they are pre and position. Pre means
prefix indicating before. Position
means the location of something. While Hornby says, pre is prefix before, and
position is place occupied by a person or thing.[1]
So, preposition is something that used before something.
Epistemologically, preposition is a word placed before
noun or pronoun to show the relation of some words to other word in the
sentence. The preposition is classified as a part of speech in traditional
grammar.[2] Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary by
Hornby states that preposition is a word or group of words used before a
noun or pronoun to show; place, position, time or method.[3]
Then, Wren and Martin define a preposition as a word placed before a noun or
pronoun to show in what relation the person or thing denoted by it stands in
regard to something else.[4]
While according to Eugene and Daniel Murphy, they say
that a preposition is a word that conveys a meaning of position, direction,
time, or other abstraction. It serves to relate its object to another sentence
element.[5]
Besides, Jayanthi Dakshina Murthy says that a preposition is a word placed before
a noun or pronoun to show its relation to some other word in the sentence.
[1]
AS. Hornby, Op cit., p.
[2] Marcella
Frank, Modern English (New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 1972), p. 163
[3] AS. Hornby, Op cit., p. 911
[4] Wren &
Martin, High School English Grammar &
Composition (NDV: Prasada Rao,1990), p. 109
[5] Eugene and Daniel Murphy, Schaum’s
outline of English Grammar (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991), p. 119
The book is beneath the table.
The book is leaning against the table.
The book is beside the table.
She held the book over the table.
She read the book during class.
The children climbed the mountain without fear.
There was rejoicing throughout the land when the government was defeated.
The spider crawled slowly along the banister.
The dog is hiding under the porch because it knows it will be punished for chewing up a new pair of shoes.
The screenwriter searched for the manuscript he was certain was somewhere in his office.
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in asentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.
A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:
In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.
A prepositional phrase is made up of the preposition, its object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A prepositional phrase can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. The most common prepositions are "about," "above," "across," "after," "against," "along," "among," "around," "at," "before," "behind," "below," "beneath," "beside," "between," "beyond," "but," "by," "despite," "down," "during," "except," "for," "from," "in," "inside," "into," "like," "near," "of," "off," "on," "onto," "out," "outside," "over," "past," "since," "through," "throughout," "till," "to," "toward," "under," "underneath," "until," "up," "upon," "with," "within," and "without."
Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a preposition:
In this sentence, the preposition "without" introduces the noun "fear." The prepositional phrase "without fear" functions as an adverb describing how the children climbed.
Here, the preposition "throughout" introduces the noun phrase "the land." The prepositional phrase acts as an adverb describing the location of the rejoicing.
The preposition "along" introduces the noun phrase "the banister" and the prepositional phrase "along the banister" acts as an adverb, describing where the spider crawled.
Here the preposition "under" introduces the prepositional phrase "under the porch," which acts as an adverb modifying the compound verb "is hiding."
Similarly in this sentence, the preposition "in" introduces a prepositional phrase "in his office," which acts as an adverb describing the location of the missing papers.