043 DISCUSSION ON PREPOSITIONS

Use of prepositions, is for some students, including me, a nightmare. I have spent, some thought processes, on prepositions. I, present some of my ideas and perceptions, here.

MEANING of 'PREPOSITION'
The prefix 'pre' means 'before'. 'Position' means location or placement. A preposition comes before its object; e.g. "to New York."; "to 2009."; "to bankruptcy." etc.

The relationship between a preposition and its object, we can compare, to the relationship of a mother with its child. The mother comes first. The child follows.

We use only nouns (or their equivalent) as the objects of preposition.

Word have multiple uses. We can use adverb as nouns.

EXAMPLES

E.g. 'She sang from morning to evening'. Dictionaries may classify 'morning' and 'evening' are time adverbs. In the prepositional phrase 'from morning'- morning is a noun. In 'to evening'- 'evening' is a noun.

A child can come with dress and jewellery. A noun can also come with its embellishments (decorations) which are, naturally, adjectives. The adjectives also form an integral part of the preposition's objects. E.g. 'the morning' = 'that morning'; 'the evening' = 'that evening'.

E.g.: The book is on the table.. 'On' is the preposition. 'The table' is the object of the preposition. 'The' means 'that'. 'The table' means 'that table'. 'The' is a demonstrative adjective in 'the table".

What is the function of 'on'?

'On' indicates how its object 'table' is connected to words outside it. It shows, how the 'table' is related to the book.

While parsing (breaking a sentence into its grammatical parts) sentences, we should take a preposition and its object as one unit.

Another example:
He went to New York. Parsing: He- subject. Went- verb. 'To New York'- preposition and its object. The preposition 'to' gives an indication about the direction and journey of something towards the preposition's object. 'To' may lead to a place, point of time, state, etc.


I furnish below some examples of 'to+' prepositional objects used by George Bernard Shaw in his play 'The Doctor's Dilemma'.

1. to the transaction.
2. to the cheque.
3. to an informal apprenticeship. (Apprenticeship is the noun. Others i.e. 'an', 'informal' are embellishments.)
4. to the tidy doctor.
5. to a child.
6. to the console.
7. to the fireplace.
8. to electric lighting.
9. to this day.
10. to his table; to bed side; to my studio.
11. to the hospital; to the hotel.
12. to a twelve ounce bottle of water.
13. to lunch.
14. to inoculation; to chloroform.
15. to the imagination.
16. to St. Moritz; to Egypt; to Sir Patrick; to Walpole.
17. to another doctor. ('Another' is only an embellishment).
18. to your fascination. ('Your' is only a possessive adjective).
19. to the souls of animals.('Soul' is the prepositional object. 'Of animals' is only an embellishment or an adjectival phrase).
20. to be funny when people die. ("Be funny when people die" is a state. The entire set is a noun i.e. a noun phrase used as a noun).
21. to be serious when people laugh. ("Be serious when people laugh" is a state. The entire set is a noun i.e. a noun phrase used as a noun).