Adposition

"Preposition" redirects here. Not to be confused withproposition.

Adpositionsare aclass of wordsused to express spatial or temporal relations (in, under, towards, behind, ago,etc.) or mark varioussemantic roles(of, for).The most common adpositions areprepositions(those which precede their complement) andpostpositions(those which follow their complement).

An adposition typically combines with anoun phrase,this being called itscomplement,or sometimesobject.Englishgenerally has prepositions rather than postpositions – words such asin, underandofprecede their objects, such asin England,under the table,of Jane– although there are a few exceptions includingagoandnotwithstanding,as in "three days ago" and "financial limitations notwithstanding". Some languages that use a different word order have postpositions instead (likeTurkic languages) or have both types (likeFinnish). Thephraseformed by an adposition together with its complement is called anadpositional phrase(or prepositional phrase, postpositional phrase, etc.). Such a phrase can function as an adjective or as an adverb.

A less common type of adposition is thecircumposition,which consists of two parts that appear on each side of the complement. Other terms sometimes used for particular types of adposition includeambiposition,inpositionandinterposition.Some linguists use the wordprepositionin place ofadpositionregardless of the applicable word order.

Terminology

The wordprepositioncomes fromLatin:prae-prefix (pre- prefix) ( "before" ) andLatin:ponere( "to put" ). This refers to the situation in Latin andGreek(and inEnglish), where such words are placed before their complement (except sometimes in Ancient Greek), and are hence "pre-positioned".

In some languages, includingSindhi,Hindustani,Turkish,Hungarian,Korean,andJapanese,the same kinds of words typically come after their complement. To indicate this, they are calledpostpositions(using the prefixpost-,from Latinpostmeaning "behind, after" ). There are also some cases where the function is performed by two parts coming before and after the complement; this is called acircumposition(from Latincircum-prefix "around" ).

In some languages, for exampleFinnish,some adpositions can be used as both prepositions and postpositions.

Prepositions, postpositions and circumpositions are collectively known asadpositions(using the Latin prefixad-,meaning "to" ). However, some linguists prefer to use the well-known and longer-established termprepositionin place ofadposition,irrespective of position relative to the complement.

Grammatical properties

An adposition typically combines with exactly onecomplement,most often anoun phrase(or, in a different analysis, adeterminer phrase). In English, this is generally a noun (or something functioning as a noun, e.g., agerund), together with itsspecifierandmodifierssuch asarticles,adjectives,etc. The complement is sometimes called theobjectof the adposition. The resultingphrase,formed by the adposition together with its complement, is called anadpositional phraseor prepositional phrase (PP) (or for specificity, a postpositional or circumpositional phrase).

An adposition establishes agrammaticalrelationship that links its complement to another word or phrase in the context. It also generally establishes asemanticrelationship, which may be spatial (in,on,under,...), temporal (after,during,...), or of some other type (of,for,via,...). TheWorld Atlas of Language Structurestreats a word as an adposition if it takes a noun phrase as a complement and indicates the grammatical or semantic relationship of that phrase to the verb in the containing clause.

Some examples of the use of English prepositions are given below. In each case, the prepositional phrase appears initalics,the preposition within it appears inbold,and the preposition'scomplementisunderlined.As demonstrated in some of the examples, more than one prepositional phrase may act as anadjunctto the same word.

• As an adjunct to a noun:
  • the weatherinMarch
  • cheesefromFrancewithlive bacteria
• As apredicative expression(complement of acopula)
  • The key isunderthe stone.
• As an adjunct to a verb:
  • sleepthroughoutthe winter
  • dancedatopthe tablesforhours
  • dispensewiththe formalities(seeSemantic functions,above)
• As an adjunct to an adjective:
  • happyforthem
  • sickuntilrecently

In the last of these examples the complement has the form of an adverb, which has beennominalisedto serve as a noun phrase; seeDifferent forms of complement,below. Prepositional phrases themselves are sometimes nominalized:

• Inthe cellarwas chosen as the best place to store the wine.

An adposition may determine thegrammatical caseof its complement. In English, the complements of prepositions take theobjective casewhere available (from him,not *from he). InKoine Greek,for example, certain prepositions always take their objects in a certain case (e.g., ἐν always takes its object in the dative), while other prepositions may take their object in one of two or more cases, depending on the meaning of the preposition (e.g., διά takes its object in the genitive or the accusative, depending on the meaning). Some languages have cases that are used exclusively after prepositions (prepositional case), or special forms ofpronounsfor use after prepositions (prepositional pronoun).

The functions of adpositions overlap with those of case markings (for example, the meaning of the English prepositionofis expressed in many languages by agenitive caseending), but adpositions are classed assyntacticelements, while case markings aremorphological.

Adpositions themselves are usuallynon-inflecting( "invariant" ): they do not have paradigms of the form (such as tense, case, gender, etc.) the same way that verbs, adjectives, and nouns can. There are exceptions, though, such as prepositions that have fused with a pronominal object to forminflected prepositions.

The following properties are characteristic of most adpositional systems:

• Adpositions are among the most frequently occurring words in languages that have them. For example, one frequency ranking for English word formsbegins as follows (prepositions in bold):

the,of,and,to,a,in,that, it, is, was, I,for,on,you,…

• The most common adpositions are single,monomorphemicwords. According to the ranking cited above, for example, the most common English prepositions areon,in,to,by,for,with,at,of,from,as,all of which are single-syllable words and cannot be broken down into smaller units of meaning.
• Adpositions form aclosed classof lexical items and cannot be productively derived from words of other categories.

Classification of adpositions

As noted above, adpositions are referred to by various terms, depending on their position relative to the complement.

While the termprepositionis sometimes used to denote any adposition, in its stricter meaning it refers only to one which precedes its complement. Examples of this, from English, have been given above; similar examples can be found in many European and other languages, for example:

• German:miteiner Frau( "witha woman ")
• French:surla table( "onthe table ")
• Welsh:ary bwrdd( "onthe table ")
• Polish:nastole( "onthe table ")
• Russian:уменя( "in the possession ofme "[I have])
• Khmer:លើក្តារខៀន [ləːkdaːkʰiən] ( "on(the) blackboard ")
• Tigrinya:አብ ልዕሊጣውላ [abːlɨʕlitʼawla] ( "at/ontoptable ");አብ ትሕቲጣውላ [abːtɨħtitʼawla] ( "at/onundertable ")

In certain grammatical constructions, the complement of a preposition may be absent or may be moved from its position directly following the preposition. This may be referred to aspreposition stranding(see alsobelow), as in "Whom did you gowith?"and" There's only one thing worse than being talkedabout."There are also some (mainly colloquial) expressions in which a preposition's complement may be omitted, such as" I'm going to the park. Do you want to comewith[me]? ", and the FrenchIl fait trop froid, je ne suis pas habilléepour( "It's too cold, I'm not dressedfor[the situation]. ") The bolded words in these examples are generally still considered prepositions because when they form a phrase with a complement (in more ordinary constructions) they must appear first.

Apostpositionfollows its complement to form a postpositional phrase. Examples include:

• Latin:mecum( "withme ", literally" mewith")
• Turkish:benimleorbenimile( "withme ", literally" mywith")
• Hungarian:faalatt( "underthe tree ", literally" treeunder")
• Chinese:Cái bànThượngzhuōzishàng(lit. "tableon"); this is a nominal form which usually requires an additional preposition to form an adverbial phrase (seeChinese locative phrases)
• English:ten kilometersaway,ten monthsago(both could be considered adverbs)

Some adpositions can appear either before or after their complement:

• English:the evidencenotwithstandingORnotwithstandingthe evidence
• German:meiner MeinungnachORnachmeiner Meinung( "inmy opinion ")
• German:die StraßeentlangORentlangder Straße( "alongthe road "; here a differentcaseis used whenentlangprecedes the noun)

An adposition like the above, which can be either a preposition or a postposition, can be called anambiposition.However,ambipositionmay also be used to refer to a circumposition (see below),or to a word that appears to function as a preposition and postposition simultaneously, as in theVedic Sanskritconstruction (noun-1)ā(noun-2), meaning "from (noun-1) to (noun-2)".

Whether a language has primarily prepositions or postpositions is seen as an aspect of itstypologicalclassification, and tends to correlate with other properties related tohead directionality.Since an adposition is regarded as theheadof its phrase, prepositional phrases are head-initial (or right-branching), while postpositional phrases are head-final (or left-branching). There is a tendency for languages that feature postpositions also to have other head-final features, such asverbs that follow their objects;and for languages that feature prepositions to have other head-initial features, such asverbs that precede their objects.This is only a tendency, however; an example of a language that behaves differently isLatin,which employs mostly prepositions, even though it typically places verbs after their objects.

Acircumpositionconsists of two or more parts, positioned on both sides of the complement. Circumpositions are very common inPashtoandKurdish.The following are examples fromNorthern Kurdish(Kurmanji):

• bi... re( "with" )
• di... de( "in", for things, not places)
• di... re( "via, through" )
• ji... re( "for" )
• ji... ve( "since" )

Various constructions in other languages might also be analyzed as circumpositional, for example:

• English:fromnowon
• Dutch:naarhet eindetoe( "towards the end", lit. "to the end to" )
• Chinese:TừTủ lạnhcóngbīngxiānglǐ( "from the inside of the refrigerator", lit. "from refrigerator inside" )
• French:àun détailprès( "except for one detail", lit. "at one detail near" )
• Swedish:förtre timmarsedan( "three hours ago", lit. "for three hours since" )
• German:ausdem Zimmerheraus( "out from the room", lit. "from the room out" )
• Tigrinya:ካብሕጂ 'ንደሓር ( "from now on", lit. "from now to later" )

Most such phrases, however, can be analyzed as having a different hierarchical structure (such as a prepositional phrase modifying a following adverb). The Chinese example could be analyzed as a prepositional phrase headed bycóng( "from" ), taking thelocative noun phrasebīngxīang lǐ( "refrigerator inside" ) as its complement.

Aninpositionis a rare type of adposition that appears between parts of a complex complement. For example, in the native CalifornianTimbisha language,the phrase "from a mean cold" can be translated using the word order "cold from mean" —the inposition follows the noun but precedes any followingmodifiersthat form part of the samenoun phrase.The Latin wordcumis also commonly used as an inposition, as in the phrasesumma cum laude,meaning "with highest praise", lit. "highest with praise".

The terminterpositionhas been usedfor adpositions in structures such aswordforword,Frenchcoupsurcoup( "one after another, repeatedly" ), and Russian другсдругом ( "one with the other" ). This is not a case of an adposition appearing inside its complement, as the two nouns do not form a single phrase (there is no phrase *word word,for example); such uses have more of acoordinatingcharacter.

Stranding

Main article:Preposition stranding

Preposition stranding is asyntacticconstruct in which a preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its complement. For example, in the English sentence "What did you sit on?" the prepositiononhaswhatas its complement, butwhatismoved to the startof the sentence, because it is aninterrogative word.This sentence is much more common and natural than the equivalent sentence without stranding: "On what did you sit?" Preposition stranding is commonly found inEnglish,as well asNorth Germanic languagessuch asSwedish.Its existence inGermanis debated. Preposition stranding is also found in someNiger–Congo languagessuch as Vata and Gbadi, and in some North American varieties ofFrench.

Some prescriptive English grammars teach that prepositions cannot end a sentence, although there isno ruleprohibiting that use.Similar rules arose during the rise of classicism, when they were applied to English in imitation of classical languages such as Latin.Otto Jespersen,in hisEssentials of English Grammar(first published 1933), commented on this definition-derived rule: "...nor need a preposition (Latin:praepositio) stand before the word it governs (go the foolsamong(Sh[akespeare]); What are you laughingat?). You might just as well believe that all blackguards are black or that turkeys come from Turkey; many names have either been chosen unfortunately at first or have changed their meanings in the course of time. "

Simpleversuscomplex

Simpleadpositions consist of a single word (on,in,for,towards,etc.).Complexadpositions consist of a group of words that act as one unit. Examples of complex prepositions in English includein spite of,with respect to,except for,by dint of,andnext to.

The distinction between simple and complex adpositions is not clear-cut. Many complex adpositions are derived from simple forms (e.g.,with + in→within,by + side→beside) throughgrammaticalisation.This change takes time, and during the transitional stages, the adposition acts in some ways like a single word, and in other ways like a multi-word unit. For example, currentGerman orthographic conventionsrecognize the indeterminate status of certain prepositions, allowing two spellings:anstelle/an Stelle( "instead of" ),aufgrund/auf Grund( "because of" ),mithilfe/mit Hilfe( "by means of" ),zugunsten/zu Gunsten( "in favor of" ),zuungunsten/zu Ungunsten( "to the disadvantage of" ),zulasten/zu Lasten( "at the expense of" ).

The distinction between complex adpositions and free combinations of words is not a black-and-white issue: complex adpositions (in English, "prepositional idioms" ) can be more fossilized or less fossilized. In English, this applies to a number of structures of the form "preposition + (article) + noun + preposition", such asin front of,for the sake of.The following characteristics are good indications that a given combination is "frozen" enough to be considered a complex preposition in English:

• It contains a word that cannot be used in any other context:by dint of,in lieu of.
• The first preposition cannot be replaced:with a view tobut not *for/without a view to.
• It is impossible to insert an article, or to use a different article:on account ofbut not *on an/the account of;for the sake ofbut not *for a sake of.
• The range of possible adjectives is very limited:in great favor of,but not *in helpful favor of.
• Thegrammatical numberof the noun cannot be changed:by virtue ofbut not *by virtues of.
• It is impossible to use apossessive determiner:in spite of him,not *in his spite.

Marginal prepositions

Marginal prepositions are prepositions that have affinities with other word classes, most notably participles.Marginal prepositions behave like prepositions but derive from other parts of speech. Some marginal prepositions in English includebarring,concerning,considering,excluding,failing,following,including,notwithstanding,regarding,andrespecting.

Properversusimproper

In descriptions of some languages, prepositions are divided intoproper(oressential) andimproper(oraccidental). A preposition is called improper if it is some other part of speech being used in the same way as a preposition. Examples of simple and complex prepositions that have been so classified includeprima di( "before" ) anddavanti (a)( "in front of" ) inItalian,andergo( "on account of" ) andcausa( "for the sake of" ) inLatin.In reference toAncient Greek,however, an improper preposition is one that cannot also serve as aprefixto averb.

Different forms of complement

As noted above, adpositions typically havenoun phrasesas complements. This can includenominal clausesand certain types ofnon-finite verbphrase:

• We can't agreeonwhether to have children or not(complement is a nominal clause)
• Let's thinkaboutsolving this problem(complement is agerundphrase)
• pourencourager les autres(French: "to encourage the others", complement is aninfinitivephrase)

The wordtowhen it precedes theinfinitive in Englishis not a preposition, but rather is a grammaticalparticleoutside of any mainword class.

In other cases, the complement may have the form of an adjective oradjective phrase,or an adverbial. This may be regarded as a complement representing a differentsyntactic category,or simply as an atypical form of noun phrase (seenominalization).

• The scene wentfromblindingly brighttopitch black(complements are adjective phrases)
• I worked thereuntilrecently(complement is an adverb)
• Come outfromunder the bed(complement is an adverbial)

In the last example, the complement of the prepositionfromis in fact another prepositional phrase. The resulting sequence of two prepositions (from under) may be regarded as acomplexpreposition; in some languages, such a sequence may be represented by a single word, as Russian из-подiz-pod( "from under" ).

Some adpositions appear to combine with two complements:

• WithSammy president,we can all come out of hiding again.
• ForSammy to become president,they'd have to seriously modify the Constitution.

It is more commonly assumed, however, thatSammyand the following predicate forms a "small clause",which then becomes the single complement of the preposition. (In the first example, a word such asasmay be considered to have beenelided,which, if present, would clarify the grammatical relationship.)

Semantic functions

Adpositions can be used to express a wide range ofsemanticrelations between their complement and the rest of the context. The relations expressed may be spatial (denoting location or direction), temporal (denoting position in time), or relations expressing comparison, content, agent, instrument, means, manner, cause, purpose, reference, etc.

Most common adpositions are highlypolysemous(they have various different meanings). In many cases, a primary, spatial meaning becomes extended to non-spatial uses bymetaphoricalor other processes. Because of the variety of meanings, a single adposition often has many possible equivalents in another language, depending on the exact context in which it is used; this can cause significant difficulties in foreignlanguage learning.Usage can also vary between dialects of the same language (for example,American Englishhason the weekend,whereasBritish Englishusesat the weekend).

In some contexts (as in the case of somephrasal verbs) the choice of adposition may be determined by another element in the construction or be fixed by the construction as a whole. Here the adposition may have little independent semantic content of its own, and there may be no clear reason why the particular adposition is used rather than another. Examples of such expressions are:

• English:dispensewith,listento,insiston,proudof,goodat
• Russian:otvechat'navopros( "answer the question", literally "answer on the question" ),obvinenievobmane( "accusation of [literally: in] fraud" )
• Spanish:soñarconganar el título( "dream about [lit. with] winning the title" ),consistirendos grupos( "consist of [lit. in] two groups" )

Prepositions sometimes mark roles that may be considered largely grammatical:

• possession(in a broad sense) –the penofmy aunt(sometimes marked bygenitiveorpossessiveforms)
• the agent inpassiveconstructions –killedbya lone gunman
• the recipient of a transfer –give ittohim(sometimes marked by adativeor anindirect object)

Spatial meanings of adpositions may be eitherdirectionalorstatic.A directional meaning usually involves motion in a particular direction ( "Kay wenttothe store "), the direction in which something leads or points (" A pathintothe woods "), or the extent of something (" The fog stretchedfromLondontoParis "). A static meaning indicates only a location ("atthe store ","behindthe chair ","onthe moon "). Some prepositions can have both uses:" he satinthe water "(static);" he jumped in the water "(probably directional). In some languages, thecaseof the complement varies depending on the meaning, as with several prepositions inGerman,such asin:

• in seinem Zimmer( "in his room", static meaning, takes thedative)
• in sein Zimmer( "into his room", directional meaning, takes theaccusative)

In English and many other languages, prepositional phrases with static meaning are commonly used aspredicative expressionsafter acopula( "Bob is at the store" ); this may happen with some directional prepositions as well ( "Bob is from Australia" ), but this is less common. Directional prepositional phrases combine mostly with verbs that indicate movement ( "Jay is going into her bedroom", but not * "Jay is lying down into her bedroom" ).

Directional meanings can be further divided intotelicandatelic.Telic prepositional phrases imply movement all the way to the endpoint ( "she ran to the fence" ), while atelic ones do not ( "she ran towards the fence" ).

Static meanings can be divided intoprojectiveandnon-projective,where projective meanings are those whose understanding requires knowledge of the perspective or point of view. For example, the meaning of "behind the rock" is likely to depend on the position of the speaker (projective), whereas the meaning of "on the desk" is not (non-projective). Sometimes the interpretation is ambiguous, as in "behind the house", which may mean either at the natural back of the house or on the opposite side of the house from the speaker.

Inflected adpositions

Main article:Inflected preposition

Some languages feature inflected adpositions – that is adpositions (usually prepositions) which are marked for grammatical person and/or grammatical number to give meanings such as "on me", "from you", etc. In the Indo-European languages this phenomenon is mostly confined to theCeltic languageslikeWelshandIrish.Polishalso allows some degree of combining prepositions with pronouns in the third person.

Celtic

The majority of Welsh prepositions can be inflected. This is achieved by having a preposition such aso('of/from') + a linking element; in the case ofothis is-hon-+ the assimilated pronoun element, resulting inohon-being the preposition's "stem" form. It is common in speech for the pronoun to be present after the preposition, but it can be omitted. Unless used with a pronoun the form is alwaysoand not the "stem", e.g.dw i'n dodoGymru–'I comefromWales',gormodogwrw–'too much (of) beer'.

The following table gives the inflected forms of the prepositiono('of/from'). The optional pronouns that follow the inflected forms are given in parentheses.

		Singular	Plural
1st Person		ohonof (i), ohono (i)–'of/from me'	ohonon (ni)–'of/from us'
2nd Person		ohonot (ti)–'of/from you'	ohonoch (chi)–'of/from you'
3rd Person	Masculine	ohono (fe/fo)–'of/from him/it'	ohonyn (nhw)–'of/from them'
	Feminine	ohoni (hi)–'of/from her/it'

Cymerodd ef hiohonof–'he took itfrom me'.

Semitic

Inflected prepositions are found inSemitic languages,includingHebrew,Arabic,Assyrian Neo-AramaicandAmharic.

For example, the Arabic prepositionعلى(/ʕalaː)'on'inflects asعلَيَّ(/ʕalajːa/)'on me',علَيْكَ) (/ʕalajka/)'on youM.SG)',علَيْهِ(/ʕalajhi/)'on him',etc.

Other languages

SomeIranic languages,includingPersian,have developed inflected prepositions. For example, Persianaz u'from him/her'becomesazaš;bā šomā'with youPL'becomesbāhātun.

InIberian Romance languagessuch asSpanishandPortuguese,the prepositionconorcom'with'has special forms incorporating certain pronouns (depending on the language). For example, in Spanish andAsturianconmigomeans'with me'.Historically, this developed from the Latin use ofcum'with'after a pronoun, as inmecum'with me'.

Bororo,an indigenous language of Brazil, uses postpositions in all contexts:tori ji'about the mountains'.When these modify a pronoun rather than a full noun, the phrase contracts into an inflected postposition(and therefore looks like a pronominal prefix, rather than a suffix as in the examples above:bagai'for',i-wagai'for me').

Overlaps with other categories

Adverbs and particles

There are often similarities in form between adpositions andadverbs.Some adverbs are derived from the fusion of a preposition and its complement (such asdownstairs,fromdown (the) stairs,andunderground,fromunder (the) ground). Some words can function both as adverbs and as prepositions, such asinside,aboard,underneath(for instance, one can say "go inside", with adverbial use, or "go inside the house", with prepositional use). Such cases are analogous to verbs that can be used eithertransitivelyor intransitively, and the adverbial forms might therefore be analyzed as "intransitive prepositions". This analysiscould also be extended to other adverbs, such ashere(this place),there(that place),afterward,etc., even though these never take complements.

Many Englishphrasal verbscontainparticlesthat are used adverbially, even though they mostly have the form of a preposition (such words may be calledprepositional adverbs). Examples areonincarry on,get on,etc., andoverintake over,fall over,and so on. The equivalents inDutchandGermanareseparable prefixes,which also often have the same form as prepositions: for example, Dutchaanbiedenand Germananbieten(both meaning "to offer" ) contain the separable prefixaan/an,which is also a preposition meaning "on" or "to".

Conjunctions

Some words can be used both as adpositions and assubordinating conjunctions:

• (preposition)before/after/sincethe end of the summer
• (conjunction)before/after/sincethe summer ended
• (preposition)It lookslikeanother rainy day
• (conjunction)It lookslikeit's going to rain again today

It would be possible to analyze such conjunctions (or even other subordinating conjunctions) as prepositions that take an entireclauseas a complement.

Verbs

In some languages, including a number ofChinese varieties,many of the words that serve as prepositions can also be used asverbs.For instance, inStandard Chinese,Đếndàocan be used in either a prepositional or a verbal sense:

• Ta đến Bắc Kinh điwǒ dào Běijīng qù( "I go to Beijing";qù,meaning "to go", is the main verb,dàois prepositional meaning "to" )
• Ta tới rồiwǒ dào le( "I have arrived";dàois the main verb, meaning "to arrive" )

Because of this overlap, and the fact that a sequence of prepositional phrases and verb phrases often resembles aserial verb construction,Chinese prepositions (and those of other languages with similar grammatical structures) are often referred to ascoverbs.

As noted in previous sections, Chinese can also be said to have postpositions, although these can be analyzed as nominal (noun) elements. For more information, see the article onChinese grammar,particularly the sections oncoverbsandlocative phrases.

Case affixes

Somegrammatical casemarkings have a similar function to adpositions; a case affix in one language may be equivalent in meaning to a preposition or postposition in another. For example, in English, the agent of apassiveconstruction is marked by the prepositionby,while inRussianit is marked by the use of theinstrumental case.Sometimes such equivalences exist within a single language; for example, thegenitivecase inGermanis often interchangeable with a phrase using the prepositionvon(just as in English, the prepositionofis often interchangeable with thepossessive suffix's).

Adpositions combinesyntacticallywith their complement, whereas case markings combine with a nounmorphologically.In some instances it may not be clear which applies; the following are some possible means of making such a distinction:

• Two adpositions can usually be joined with acoordinating conjunctionand share a single complement (of and for the people), whereas this is generally not possible with case affixes;
• One adposition can usually combine with two coordinated complements (of the city and the world), whereas a case affix would need to be repeated with each noun (Latinurbis et orbis,not *urb- et orbis);
• Case markings combine primarily with nouns, whereas adpositions can combine with (nominalized) phrases of different categories;
• A case marking usually appears directly on the noun, but an adposition can be separated from the noun by other words;
• Within the noun phrase, determiners and adjectives may agree with the noun in case (case spreading), but an adposition only appears once;
• A language can have hundreds of adpositions (including complex adpositions), but no language has that many distinct morphological cases.

Even so, a clear distinction cannot always be made. For example, the post-nominal elements inJapaneseandKoreanare sometimes called case particles and sometimes postpositions. Sometimes they are analyzed as two different groups because they have different characteristics (e.g., the ability to combine with focus particles), but in such analysis, it is unclear which words should fall into which group.

Turkish,FinnishandHungarianhave both extensive case-marking and postpositions, but there is evidence to help distinguish the two:

• Turkish: (case)sinemaya(cinema-dative,"to the cinema" ) vs. (postposition)sinemaiçin( "for the cinema" )
• Finnish: (case)talossa(house-inessive,"in the house" ) vs. (postposition) "talonedessä(house-genitivein front, "in front of the house" )
• Hungarian: (case)tetőn(roof-superessive,"on the roof" ) vs. (postposition) "tetőalatt( "under the roof" )

In these examples, the case markings form a word with their hosts (as shown byvowel harmony,other word-internal effects and agreement of adjectives in Finnish), while the postpositions are independent words. As is seen in the last example, adpositions are often used in conjunction with case affixes – in languages that have a case, a given adposition usually takes a complement in a particular case, and sometimes (as has been seenabove) the choice of the case helps specify the meaning of the adposition.

See also

• English prepositions
• List of English prepositions
• Old English prepositions
• Spanish prepositions
• Japanese particles
• Relational noun

Bibliography

• Haspelmath, Martin. (2003) "Adpositions".International Encyclopedia of Linguistics.2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-513977-1.
• Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. (2002)The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-43146-8.
• Huddleston, Rodney;Pullum, Geoffrey K.;Reynolds, Brett (2022).A Student's Introduction to English Grammar(2nd ed.). Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1-009-08574-8.
• Koopman, Hilda. (2000) "Prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions, and particles". InThe Syntax of Specifiers and Heads,pp. 204–260. London: Routledge.
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• Rauh, Gisa. (1991)Approaches to Prepositions.Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
• Reindl, Donald F. (2001) "Areal Effects on the Preservation and Genesis of Slavic Postpositions". In Lj. Šarić and D. F. ReindlOn Prepositions(= Studia Slavica Oldenburgensia 8), pp. 85–100. Oldenburg: Carl-von-Ossietzky-Universitat Oldenburg.

External links

• Merriam Webster Editor's take on whether it is ok to end a sentence with a Preposition
• Some prepositionsat Purdue Online Writing Lab