prepositional meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

prepositional

adj

Etymology From Latin praepositiō (“a setting before, a preposition”), a calque of Ancient Greek πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a setting before, preposition (grammar)”) + -al.

Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a preposition.

Although we have concentrated on Prepositions which take zero Complements, NP Complements, or clausal Complements in our discussion above, there seems no reason in principle to exclude the possibility of Prepositions taking prepositional Complements. And it may well be that items such as those italicised below are Prepositions which subcategorise a PP Complement headed by of: (80) (a) He stayed at home because [of the strike] (80) (b) He fell out [of the window] (80) (c) Few people outside [of the immediate family] know (80) (d) %It fell off [of the table] (dialectal)1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 7, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 364:

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Of the prepositional case.

Derived terms: deprepositional, nonprepositional, phrasal prepositional verb, prepositional article, prepositional case, prepositionally, prepositional phrase, prepositional pronoun, prepositional verb

prepositional

noun

Etymology From Latin praepositiō (“a setting before, a preposition”), a calque of Ancient Greek πρόθεσις (próthesis, “a setting before, preposition (grammar)”) + -al.

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences The prepositional case.