Prepositions &

Postpositions

Preposition

• A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships may include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount. 

Examples:• She went to the store - Direction

• He came by bus - Manner

• They will be here at three o'clock - Time

• It is under the table - Place

Preposition• Preposition comes from Latin, a language in which such a word is usually placed before its complement. • English is another such language. • Prepositions precede their complements. (Thus it is pre-positioned).• about, above, beneath, into, like – some common prepositions. Example

She drove to the store

p complement

- Karachi Pakistan mein hain.

- Chalo saath chalein.

Postposition

• The words of grammatical function come after, not before, the complement. Such words are then commonly called postpositions.

• Many head-final languages (E.g. Bengali, Korean, Tamil, Basque, Turkish, and Japanese).

• Among, for , to, with – some common postpositions.

• Par, se, ko - some hindi postpositions

Example

• Three minutes before.

• John received a generous offer few hours ago.

• Kitaab mez par hai.

• Main Hindustan se hun.

Postposition in Hindi

• Postpositions in Hindi are like prepositions in English but they are placed after the noun.

Example

- ped ghar ke peeche hain.

• The use of postpositions makes it possible to express the cases in Hindi. 

Example

- larki ka kaam – genetive case

- larke ko de do - dative

- larki se – ablative

- larki mein - locative

Postposition in Bengali

Postpositions in Bengali are like prepositions in English but they are placed behind the noun or pronoun. The noun or pronoun is often in the possessive case.

Example

- aapnar saamne (infront of you)

- babar kaache (near father)

- taar jonno fase gechi (stuck because of him)

Adposition

Preposition Postposition Circumposition

NOTE: Some people use “preposition“ instead of Adposition for all three cases.

Prepositional Phrase

• The prepositional phrase consists of the preposition, its object, and modifiers of the object.

• The object of the preposition is always a noun, pronoun, or a group of words used as a noun.

Prepositional Phrase

Example

• The coin fell between the cracks.

p object

• They walked to their school.

p object

Function of Prepositions

• Adjective modifying a noun – “Look at the boat with the blue sail”.

• Adverb modifying a verb – “The team won without the starting quarterback”.

• As nominal when used in conjunction with the verb form to be – “The park is next to the hospital”.

Semantic properties of Prepositions

In semantic terms, the preposition functions to illustrate a logical, temporal, or spatial relationship between the object of the prepositional phrase and

the other components of the sentence.

Example

• The dog is asleep on his bed.

In this example, the prepositional phrase on his bed indicates a spatial relationship between the subject dog and the object bed.

• The town hasn't been the same since the war.

In this sentence, the prepositional phrase since the war indicates a temporal relationship between the verb phrase hasn't been the same and the object war.

Use of Adpositional phrases

• Can modify sentences infinitely – important to understand their form and function.

• Writers use prepositional phrases excessively, creating an almost arousing effect in an attempt at over clarification.