Transcript PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE - State University of Zanzibar

PREPOSITION
• Prepositions are words like at, in, e.t.c with which
precede nouns, noun phrases and pronouns to
form a unit.
• Prepositions may consist of:
One word e.g..................... from,
Two words e.g..................... because of or
Three words e.g....................in contact with.
Or occasionally four e.g......with the exception of.
All are single prepositions.
Prepositional Phrase
• A Prepositional Phrase is a group of words in a
sentence that begin with a preposition.
• A prepositional phrase consist of a preposition
followed by propositional complement.
• What comes after the preposition is called the
prepositional complement.
• All two elements are obligatory parts.
Prepositional Compliment
• The complement of a preposition can be:
• A noun phrase (NP) a noun or a pronoun
She lives in town
Her bright smile greeted me at the breakfast table
He came after me
• Wh- Clause
She comes from what she called a small farm of two
hundred acre
• An -ing Clause
Prepositional Compliment
Salum tried to shake off his fears by looking at
the sky.
• An adverb
You can see the station from here
• A propositional phrase
You can call me any time except at work
2 clauses can not be PP Complement
• That clause
• To infinitive clause
In No. 2 and 3 clauses the preposition is omitted
1. I was surprised at the news.
2. I was surprised that things changed so quickly.
3. I was surprised to hear you say it had been raining.
FUNCTIONS OF PP
• Adverbial/ Adjunct
You may need to do some work in the evening
Finally I went back to my old job
• Modifier in a noun phrase
She felt she had no chance of promotion
• Modifier of Adjective phrase
The floor was wet near the bathtub
• Compliment of adjective
My son is brilliant at Mathematics
FUNCTIONS OF PP
• Compliment of a noun
He is a teacher of French literature
• Complement of adverb
Students don’t live far from here
• Complement of prepositional phrase
I’m free all day except on Mondays.
• Compliment of Verb
You mustn’t worry too much about this
The woman relies on her babysitter
FUNCTIONS OF PP
• Object
We prefer at six o'clock.
• Subject
Before lunch is when I do my best work
Thus: PP function as:• Modifiers of Phrases
• Complements of Phrases
• Adjuncts and Adverbials
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The little girl with blonde hair smiled at me
The children played in the backyard.
The couple danced after dinner.
Librarians are fond of book
He is the writer of the book
In my opinion you understood every things
Reference
• Todd, Loreto (1995) An Introduction to
Linguistics. Longman: UK
• Leech, G and Svartvic (2001) A Communicative
Grammar of English. Longman: London
• Downing, Angela and Locke, Philip (2006) English
Grammar a University Course. Routledge: New
York
• Trask, R. L.; Stockwell, Peter (2007) Language and
Linguistics : The Key Concepts. Routledge: New
York