SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE SUMMARY
1 The choice of preposition in a PP may be (a) governed by the particular noun, verb or adjective that precedes it (a threat to, depend on, bored with), or (b) chosen freely from a set of prepositions expressing different relationships (under, over, between, across, along, etc.), as in Let’s place the lamp in the corner/on the desk/by the armchair). The former type is said to be ‘grammaticized’ or ‘bound’. The latter type is ‘lexical’ or ‘free’.
2 Location in space and change of location are the most basic types of prepositional relations. When speakers use in or on or under in English, for example, they make use of cognitive patterns or mental image schemas of each relationship, in accordance with the way each relation is perceived in the culture.
3 The concepts of Figure and Ground (or, more specifically, Trajector and Landmark) are used to refer to the salient object, whether moving or stationary, and the point of reference, respectively, in a spatial event. The preposition expresses the relation between the two – such as ‘containment’ (in), or ‘support’ (on) – in the most basic use. Further uses can then be explained as modifications of the basic image schema, as these mental pictures are perceived and derived from our experience of the world.
4 Many basic patterns of spatial location are carried over to time relations, such as in the house, in November, in 1492, and to ordinary metaphorical uses which form part of our daily interaction (in love, in time, in pain).
