Noting the function of prepositions and exploring some of the ways in which they are used.

I HAVE heard horror stories about the English that is learnt in Communication or is it Communicational or Communicative? English. Could the following be one such example: Red Riding Hood go grandmother house? Forget the verb form, and forget the grandmother whose possession of a house is in doubt. Then the sentence does make sense but up to a point. For the purpose of this column, I want to raise the point that a preposition can make some sense, but – referring back to the above example – did Red Riding Hood go to or by or around her grandmother’s house?

Prepositions are little words, commonly of one syllable (at, by, down, in, on, over, under, up, etc), that represent one of the traditional eight parts of speech. They show a relationship to place (at home, to the market) or time (on Friday, after three days) or order or degree or importance; the manner of an action (by bus, with a pencil); possession or association (of the house; for the life of me – although it must be noted that the genitive/possessive case of personal pronouns is also commonly used after the preposition of, as in the double genitives of mine, of yours, of his, of hers). Lastly, the preposition is used to indicate the base form of a verb in a to-infinitive (to walk, to swim).

The preposition in association with verbs

A common construction in English is one where a preposition is used after a verb (turn into, compare with, differ from) or after the verb-derived noun (in comparison to) or adjective (different than). But are the correct prepositions being used? Consider the following two sentences: (1) the ugly duckling spent the winter in desolation but by spring it had turned into a beautiful swan; and (2) the motorist ignored the signboard and turned into a cul-de-sac. In both sentences, the phrase, turned into, is correct when read in the proper context. In the first construction, the ugly duckling had transformed into a beautiful swan. In the second example, the motorist did not transform into a cul-de-sac – actually, he drove the car into a cul-de-sac.

What about different prepositions used with the same verb? As an example, take the verb compare associated with the prepositions with and to. Compare with means “to judge or consider dissimilarities between persons or things” (he is a brat compared with his younger brother), while compare to means “to judge or consider similarities between persons or things” (he is a good boy and is often compared to his twin sister. Of course, there is that incomparable example from the opening line of Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”). The same consideration holds for the derived noun comparison in the phrases in comparison with as against in comparison to.

There are situations where a preposition is incorrectly paired with a specific verb. For example, the proper construction is differ from but one often encounters the incorrect pairing differ to (as in “Real Madrid are an incredible club, a club different to any other club” New Straits Times, Nov 23, 2010, p38) or even differ than. Example: The rambutan differs from the pulasan. Even with the derived adjective different, the same preposition should be used (the rambutan is different from the pulasan).

Then there are situations where different prepositions linked to the same verb convey different meanings or different complexions to the meaning. For example, some aboriginal people may live in trees (i.e. find shelter and dwell in trees), but they do not live on trees (i.e. eat trees as food). Consider another example. With the verb break, we may have the following constructions: (1) his job is to break in horses; (2) the burglar broke into the house; (3) enzymes break down food into simple components; (4) the mob managed to break through the cordon; (5) the police broke up the mob.

For another quick example, take the verb come, and we have (1) come about, (2) come across, (3) come by, (4) come round, (5) come to grief, (6) come up against, (7) come upon.

Prepositions as prefixes

Prefixes in the English language originate largely from Latin and, to a smaller extent, from Greek; and each of these goes on to form a whole series of words. For example, the Latin cum “with” forms compartment, compatible, commune, communicate, complicit, comply, comport, compose, etc; while the Greek hyper “above, over” forms hyperbaric, hyperbola, hypermetropia, hyperplasia, hyperthermia, etc. However, the meanings of these derivative words are not apparent unless one knows the root words also used in their derivation.

Many of the native English prepositions are also used as prefixes to combine with simple everyday words to form derivatives. Such derivatives have one engaging feature in that their meanings are obvious or can be easily guessed. For example, the prefix off forms offbeat, offhand, off-hours, off-limits, offputting, offside, off-white, etc; and the prefix out forms outdo, outlast, outlive, outlook, output, outrun, outreach, outstanding, etc.

The following is a very short list of simple-to-understand derivatives (nouns, adjectives, verbs) to illustrate the similar facility of other English prepositions used as prefixes to form words: about-turn, afterthought, bystander, downplay, inflow, mid-term, overturn, throughout, understudy, upgrade, etc.

Prepositions as add-ons

There is yet another interesting use of prepositions. Contrary to their etymology [Latin prae “before” + pono/ponere/posui/positum “to place ...”], they are used as add-ons to simple, everyday words to form a whole host of easy-to-understand nouns and adjectives. As examples, consider the prepositions out in breakout, walkout, shootout, etc, and up in breakup, make-up, push-up, set-up, etc.

The following is a very short list of other prepositions used as add-ons in word-formation: roundabout, hereafter, lay-by, put-down, therefor, walk-in, one-off, send-off, add-on, look-out, takeover, follow-through, lean-to, thereunder, set-up, thereupon, wherewith, etc.

Closing remarks

There is one other interesting aspect about prepositions. They are seemingly not significant enough to be capitalised like the initials of other words in the titles of books, stories, and poems (e.g. A Dictionary Of Politics, Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard) but we know better, don’t we?

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