THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITYFACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

GROUP 05:

Trần Thị NgọcDoãn Thúy OanhMai Thị Thu TrangNguyễn Hoàng Yến

Thai Nguyen, 11th Sep., 2013

PREPOSITONS AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Outline:I. DefinitionII. StructureIII. Syntactic functions of PPIV. Exercises & homework

Startup exercise:

Fill in the dash: 1. I am afraid being

sick. 2. she is interested the

game. 3. I am grateful her. 4. sight, mind. 5. we are very worried our

tests.

Startup exercise:

Answer key:1. I am afraid of being sick.

2. she is interested in the game.

3. I am grateful to her. 4. out of sight, out of mind. 5. we are very worried about

our tests.

I. Definition1. Def. OF PREPOSITION

-Def. : A word (one of the parts of speech and a member of a closed word class) that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence.

- Types:+ simple : a word Eg: in, on at …+complex: >=2 words Eg: out of, along

with, up to, ….

-

2. Def. OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE-Def. : A Prepositional Phrase consits of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement, which is characteristically a NP or a wh-clause or V-ing clause.- Eg: PP PP

in the garden (believe) in what you say

prep. NP( complement) prep. Wh-clause(complement)

PP

( keen) on playing football.

prep. V-ing clause( complement)

II. Structure

PP= Prep.( the head) + prepositional Complement

simple NP

wh- interrogation clause(wh-question)

wh- relative clause

complex V-ing – clausewh-clausethat-clause

Note: complex prep. - adv or prep+ pre: along with, as for, out of, up to, …

- v/ adj/ conjunction/… : owing to, due to, thanks to, because of, ….- prep+ n+ pre: in front of, in spite of, by means of,

in comparision with

Examples: slide5 At which house is he staying?

Prep. wh-interrogation clause(wh-question)

About what are they talking? The book about which I talked is very famous.

prep. Relative clause

in there , until now. ( now and there are Adv Phrases)

Preposition within a sentence.

Before its complement

In some cases, prep. stands after.

Wh-question which school did you study at?relative clause The book which I talked about is very famous.

wh-clause + prep. What I’ll talk about is functions of prep. Phrase.Exclamation what a mess he has got into!

passives He was punished after by all the mistakes he had made.infinitive clause She is possible to work with.

Exercise: Underline prepositional phrase(s) in the

following sentences:1. The ship sunk quickly on Tuesday.2. I usually have dinner with my parents at a

restaurant on my birth’s day.3. To my thought, Johnson might go down with

liver cancer for a long time.

4. Under any circumstances, she always keep calm.

5. I was very lazy at studying and I ,as a result, failed the final exam.

III. Syntactic functions of PP

Prepositional Phrase acts as NP post-modifier, NP Complement, AdjP Complement, AdvP Complement, Adjunct Advbial, Disjunct Advbial.

1. PP as NP modifier

PP acts as post-modifier of a NP.Eg:The puppy with the blue and white fur

NP PPÞ PP modifies the NP.

An old man with glasses. someone for whom the bell tolls.

2. PP as a NP ComplementationPP acts as a NP Complement. It

completes the meaning of the NP.Eg : passion for readinglove of singing

fear of mice latest edition of this book.

3. PP as an AdjP complementationKeen on bananas AdjP PP

Fond of comic

adjP PP

Afraid of the darkness. adjP PP

4. PP as VP complentation PP, as VP complementation, completes

the meaning of the VP.Eg:

Rely on my husband

VP PP

Listen to the music VP PP

Approve of my planVP PP

5. PP as Adjunct Advbial

Adjunct modifies an entire clause.Eg: The children waited in line.The couple is walking their dog along the

beach.She failed the test because of her illness.

6. PP as Disjunct Advbial Disjunct Advbial provides additional

information to frame of an entire clause.Eg:

In my opinion, learning about grammar is fun. For the love of goodness, the children need

to stop whining. With all due respect, you need to calm down

   

IV. Exercise. Identify each PP in the sentences below,

and indicate its function.1. The students at the hospital were fond of

practical jokes

2. In spite of his illness, he tried to complete his own performance.

3. The girl with long blond hair and glasses is Linda.

4. The children insisted on eating candies before their lunch.

5. He always has a desire of becoming an excellent pilot.

Answer key1. At the hospital=>post modifier of NP “ the student”

of practical jokes=> complementation of an adj “ fond”

2. in spite of his illness=> disjunct

3. With long blond hair and glasses=> post-modifier of NP “ the girl”

4. On eating candies=> complementation of VP “ insisted…”before their lunch=> adjunct

5. Of becoming an excellent pilot=> complementation of NP “ a desire”

Homework:

1. Replace each underlined phrase with suitable PP. Make some changes in the sentence if it’s necessary. There are some clues for you below: into a habit of due to for + time

in spite of by means of on + V-inga. I am used to swimming in the afternoon.

b. I can pass the exam because I worked very hard.

c. Although he is a very intelligent student, he still fails to succeed.

d. She loves watching the cartoon “ Tom and Jerry “.

e. She went to Ho Chi Minh city a month ago.

f. He used an umbrella to kill the cat.

Some information is quoted from the website

www.linguisticsgirl.com

Thank for your

attention!

Faculty of Foreign Languages- TNU