A study on IN prepositional phrases in english with reference to vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON “IN’’ PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES IN ENGLISH
WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CỤM GIỚI TỪ “IN” TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ
LIÊN HỆ VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

TRUONG THI QUY

HA NOI, 2017


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A STUDY ON “IN’’ PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES IN ENGLISH
WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CỤM GIỚI TỪ“IN” TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ
LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

TRUONG THI QUY
Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Van Dong , Ph.D

Hanoi, 2017


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled.
A STUDY ON “IN’’ PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES IN ENGLISH
WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(Nghiên cứu về cụm giới từ “IN” trong tiếng Anh và
liên hệ với tương đương trong tiếng Việt )

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in
English linguistics. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work
has been used without acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Ha Noi, 2017

Truong Thi Quy

Approved by
SUPERVISOR
(Signature and full name)

Nguyen Thi Van Dong

Date …………………………………….

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number
of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Nguyen Thi Van
Dong , my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the
stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have
inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to all my lectures and officers of Falcuty of Graduate
Studies, Hanoi Open University and many others, without whose support and
encouragement it would never have been possible for me
accomplished.

ii

to have this thesis


ABSTRACT
As the tittle of the thesis indicates: A study on “IN’’prepositional phrases in English
with reference to Vietnamese equivalents , the purpose of the study is to point out the
semantic and syntactic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in English

and

Vietnamese equivalents.To carry out this research, the writer used such methods as
descriptive, statistical and analytical.In addition, a survey questionnaire was carried out
for the high school students at the Ung Hoa high school. In the end, the research
worked out the reasons for these mistakes which the students had made when using
“IN” prepositional phrases in English and found the similarities and dissimilarities
between “IN” prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese equivalents.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... viii
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1
1.1.

Rationale for the study ................................................................................. 1

1.2. Aims and objectives of the study ..................................................................... 2
1.2.1. Aims of the study.......................................................................................... 2
1.2.2. Objectives of the study ................................................................................. 2
1.3. Research questions .......................................................................................... 2
1.4. Methods of the study ....................................................................................... 3
1.5. Scope of the study............................................................................................ 3
1.6. Significance of the study.................................................................................. 4
1.7. Design of the study .......................................................................................... 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................. 6
2.1. Previous studies ............................................................................................... 6
2.2. Overview of syntax and semantics ................................................................... 8
2.2.1. Syntax........................................................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Semantics ..................................................................................................... 9

2.3. An overview of the prepositions ...................................................................... 9
2.3.1. Some features of prepositional phrases ....................................................... 10
2.3.2. English prepositions.................................................................................... 12
2.4. Overview of errors and error corrections ....................................................... 29
2.5. Summary ....................................................................................................... 30
3.1. Syntactic features of “IN” prepositional phrases ............................................ 31
3.1.1. Structure ..................................................................................................... 31
3.1.2. Syntaxtic Functions of “IN” prepositional phrases ...................................... 32
3.2. Semantic features of “IN” prepositional phrases ............................................ 33
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3.2.1. “IN” prepositional phrases denoting time:................................................... 33
3.2.2. IN prepositional phrases denoting place or position .................................... 35
3.2.3. ‘IN’ prepositional phrases to show movement towards the inside of a
container, place or area. ........................................................................................ 36
3.2.4. ‘IN’ prepositional phrases to show when something is part of something else
............................................................................................................................. 36
3.2.5. ‘IN’ prepositional phrase to show that someone is wearing something: ...... 37
3.2.6. ‘IN’prepositional phrases to show how things are arranged, expressed or
written .................................................................................................................. 37
3.3. “IN’ prepositional phrases and their Vietnamese equivalents ......................... 37
3.3.1. “IN” in English corresponds to “trong” in Vietnamese ............................... 37
3.3.2. “IN” in English corresponds to “ngoài” in Vietnamese ............................... 39
3.3.3. “IN” in English corresponds to “trên” in Vietnamese.................................. 39
3.3.4. “IN” in English corresponds to “dưới” in Vietnamese ................................ 40
3.3.5. “IN” in English corresponds to “ở” in Vietnamese...................................... 41
3.3.6. “IN” in English corresponds to “bên” in Vietnamese .................................. 41
3.3.7. “IN” in English corresponds to “bằng” in Vietnamese ................................ 42
3.3.8. “IN” in English corresponds to “về” in Vietnamese .................................... 42

3.3.9. “IN” in English corresponds to “vào” in Vietnamese .................................. 42
3.3.10. “IN” in English corresponds to “trước” in Vietnamese ............................. 43
3.3.11. “IN” in English corresponds to “sau” in Vietnamese................................. 43
3.4. In terms of similarities and differences between “IN” prepositional phrases in
English and Vietnamese equivalents. .................................................................... 44
3.4.1. Similarities ................................................................................................. 44
3.4.2. Differences ................................................................................................. 45
3.5. Summary ....................................................................................................... 46

Chapter 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY LEARNER OF ENGLISH WHEN
USING “IN’’ PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES................................................... 47
4.1. Survey questionnaires................................................................................ 47
4.1.1. Subject ........................................................................................................ 47
4.1.2. Questionnaires ............................................................................................ 47
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4.1.3. Procedure .................................................................................................... 48
4.2. Common errors made by learners of English when using “IN” prepositional
phrases ................................................................................................................. 54
4.2.1. Common errors made by learners of English when using “IN”prepositional
phrases ................................................................................................................. 54
4.2.2. Causes of committing errors using “IN”prepositional phrases in English .... 55
4.3. Suggestions for teaching and learning prepositions in English and
Vietnamese………………………………………………………………………...56
4.4. Summary ....................................................................................................... 57

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION............................................................................... 58
5.1. Recapitulation ................................................................................................ 58
5.2. Limitation of the study................................................................................... 59

5.3. Suggestions for further study ......................................................................... 59

REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 60
APPENDIX 1 ................................................................................................... 64
APPENDIX 2 .................................................................................................. 70
APPENDIX 2 ................................................................................................... 70
APPENDIX 2 ................................................................................................... 74

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1. Preposition functions ............................................................................ 11
Table 2.2. Preposition complement ....................................................................... 16
Table 2.3. Position of Vietnamese preposition ...................................................... 28
Table 3.1. Syntactic functions of IN prepositional phrases .................................... 33
Table 4.1. The learners’ answer on task 1 ............................................................. 48
Table 4.2. The learners’ answer on task 2 ............................................................. 50
Table 4.3. The learners’ answer on task 3 ............................................................. 52
Table 4.4. The learners’ answer on task 4 ............................................................. 53

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LIST OF TABLES
Prep1

Preposition 1

LM

Landmark

LMS

Landmarks

L2

Second Language

E.g.

For Example

Prep2

Preposition 2

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1.

Rationale for the study

There is a well-established fact that prepositions pose a big challenge for the

acquisition of English language. Learners of English as a foreign language often
face with huge difficulties in actively mastering the language. Generally, they
seemingly hold the view that English notional categories, namely nouns, verbs,
adjectives and adverbs are crucial, hence striving to learn as many of them as
possible and functional categories as prepositions are of minor significance because
they are limited in number and their meaning are not important to the meaning of
the whole sentence. Moreover, the traditional view considers that all the senses of
the prepositions and prepositional phrases are highly arbitrary and are not related to
another one. Both dictionaries and grammars provide long lists of unrelated senses
for each preposition, preposition phrase and its possible uses in different contexts.
In terms of syntactic function, prepositions and prepositional phrases are
words used to connect noun or noun phrases to other phrases in a sentence. They
exist in both English and Vietnamese language systems, in which their
characteristics and usages, however, are quite different. Mastering prepositions and
prepositional phrases more often than not cause a great deal of troubles for
Vietnamese native-speaker learners when learning English.
In the process of teaching-learning English, great attention has been paid
while dealing with ‘IN’ prepositional phrases. It is due to their syntactic and
semantic feature, as well as stylistic peculiarities. Therefore, an effective way of
mastering ‘IN’ prepositional phrases should help learners overcome their difficulties
in acquiring English.
For all the mentioned above reasons, the topic relating to ‘IN’ prepositional
phrases in English expressions with reference to Vietnamese equivalents has been
chosen for my graduation thesis.

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1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
1.2.1. Aims of the study

This study is conducted to aim at finding out the typical semantic and
syntactic

features

of prepositional

phrases,

especially investigating

‘IN’

prepositional phrases in English and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of
syntactic and semantic features, thus helping Vietnamese learners of English to have
better understanding of prepositional phrases in general and ‘IN’ prepositional
phrases in particular and be able to use them effectively in daily communication.
1.2.2. Objectives of the study
(i). To investigate the syntactic and semantic features of ‘IN’ prepositional
phrases in English.
(ii). To find out the similarities and differences between ‘IN’ prepositional
phrases in English and Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic
features.
(iii). To propose some implications for teaching and learning ‘IN’
prepositional phrases in English

at Ung Hoa high school in particular in an

effective way.
1.3. Research questions

(i). What are the syntactic and semantic features of “IN”prepositional phrases
in English?
(ii). What are the similarities and differences between “IN” prepositional
phrases in English and Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic
features?
(iii). What are the implications for teaching and learning “IN” prepositional
phrases in English at Ung Hoa in particular in an effective way?

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1.4. Methods of the study
This study is aimed to identify and describe some syntactic and semantic
features of ‘IN’ prepositional phrases in English with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents, from these findings, some similarities and differences would be shown.
To achieve this purpose, a large amount of data has been collected and analyzed in a
careful consideration with the combination of contrastive analysis in qualitative and
quantitative approaches, which are used in the arguments and discussions.
Comparative and contrastive methods help us set up similarities and
differences in the way of using prepositional phrases, especially ‘IN’ prepositional
phrases, by English and Vietnamese people in both spoken and written language by
doing the survey.
Besides, descriptive, analytic and contrastive methods are applied as the
major methodology of this study. The method as descriptive research is utilized to
describe and demonstrate linguistic features of ‘IN’ prepositional phrases in English
and the Vietnamese equivalents, the methods are also used to describe the syntactic
and semantic features of ‘IN’ prepositional phrases. Some typical examples and
statistic tables of classification are given to make the analysis a clearance. The
contrastive method is utilized to find out similarities and differences of ‘IN’
prepositional phrases in terms of syntactic and semantic features.

Besides, some of the research techniques as statistics and observation are
combined to draw out necessary findings.
Last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a
guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to get the right direction to
do this research.
1.5. Scope of the study
It is due to the framework of a master thesis, this study focuses on the
semantic and syntactic features of IN prepositional phrases in Engnglish with
reference to Vietnamese equivalents,so as to point out the similarities and

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differences. This will be useful for teaching and learning process for both teachers
and students. The implication for mastering these prepositions will also be taken
into consideration with a view to help students at Ung Hoa high school to overcome
their difficulties in acquiring English as a foreign language.
1.6. Significance of the study
In terms of theoretical significance, the research is expected to contribute an
in-depth description of “IN”prepositional phrases in English by analyzing their
syntactic and semantic features in comparison with Vietnamese equivalents.
In terms of practical significance, we have been studied in many aspects such
as culture, custom, and even psychology but there have been no studies dealing with
the syntactic and semantic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in English,
especially with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents. Thus, this research is
conducted in attempt to provide Vietnamese learners of English with better
mastering at Ung Hoa high school in sensible ways, how to thoroughly understand,
and naturally use them in receptive and productive skills. In describing the syntactic
and semantic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in English, especially with
reference to Vietnamese equivalents will be taken into consideration as the ground

for my study with the hope of making a contribution in to the process of
overcoming some difficulties met by the Vietnamese learners of English.
1.7. Design of the study
This study is designed with five chapters:
Chapter 1, Introduction, gives an overview of the thesis including rationale,
aims, objectives, scope and methods of the study as well as the organization of the
research.
Chapter 2, literature review, presents an overview of some previous studies
on the same subject both in English and vietnamese. At the same time, the chapter
gives a theoretical background to the study with theoretical preliminaries directly

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related to the investigation of syntactic and semantic features of “IN”prepositional
phrases in English with reference to vietnamese equivalents.
Chapter 3, the finding and discussion, in which the author will summarize
the findings, discuss the similarities and differences of “IN” prepositional phrases in
two languages in two terms syntax and semantics and give implication for
mastering these prepositions.
Chapter 4, the applications, analysis of the Common errors made by learners
in learning English when use “IN” prepositional phrases in English and implications
for teaching English
Chapter 5, the conclusion, provides the recapitulation, concluding remarks
and limitation of the study, and suggestion for further studies.

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Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Previous studies
According to the traditional view, the researchers consider that all the senses
of a preposition are highly arbitrary and are not related to one another. Otto
Jesperseen [6;171], who is one of the prominent traditional linguists and
grammarians, groups prepositions as a subclass of particles and defines them very
briefly in “ Essentials of English Grammar” as elements which signal different
types of relationship in the sentence as follows: in, at, through, for, ect.
Lawal (2004) shows that prepositions indicate various relationships between
words or phrases in sentence. The relationship includes those of time, points,
position, direction and various degrees of mental or emotional attitude.
Concerning the usage of prepositions, Hayden et.al (1996) mentions in his
grammar textbook ‘Mastering American English’ that: a preposition shown a
relationship between its object and other words in a sentence…
Quirk and Greenbaum (1985) concerns about the relational meanings the
prepositions establish among the constituents of the sentence and the fact that
prepositional meaing are difficult to describe systematically in ‘A concise grammar
of English’.
Charles Fillmore’s view of prepositions differs from those of the other
grammarians and linguists. Charles Fillmores attributes a very distinctive role to
English prepositions in “Toward a Modern Theory of Case”. He regards them as
elements which specify the different cases of the noun phrases.
Concerning about the implications for teaching prepositions, Celce – Murcia
and Larsen – Freeman show the nine most frequent prepositions (at, by, from, in,
for, of, on, to, with) in “ An English Grammar for Teachers of English as a Second
Language” (1978). He recommends that the beginnes of English should master at an
early stage the primary meanings of the nine prepositions in his book.

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Prepositions and prepositional phrases have been also studied deeply by
many Vietnamese linguists such as Dinh Van Duc, Diep Quang Ban, Bui Duc Tinh.
According to Bui Duc Tinh (1952), preposition and preposition phrase are
words used to show the meaning correlativeness of two words or two phrases.
Dinh Van Duc (2001) states that preposition like conjunction is used to
express the relationship among words of open word class. The function of
conjunction is not to express the grammatical meaning.
Nguyen Kim Than in “Nghiên cứu về ngữ pháp tiếng Việt” separated
preposition as one types of part of speech and definite that prepositions is a kind of
empty words that are used to connect to link the sub - word with the main word to
show the relationship between the two words
From the basis of the previous studies, it can be seen that the investigation of
prepositions of place ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘on’ and their Vietnamese equivalents have not
discussed so far in both languages, English and Vietnamese. A research relating
English prepositions of place ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘on’ with reference to Vietnamese
equivalents has been chosen for my thesis.
A study on preposition of time in English (Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, 2009).
A study on prepositions of direction and some errors made by Vietnamese
learners (Ngo Thi Thu Dieu, 2010).
Semantic and analysis functions of English adjective - a contrastive analysis
with their Vietnamese equivalent (Nguyen Thi Nga, 2008).
Đặc điểm chức năng của giới từ trong tiếng Việt hiện đại (Lê Duy Trinh2006).

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2.2. Overview of syntax and semantics
2.2.1. Syntax
The word “syntax” is derived from the Greek “syntaxis”, which means

“arrangement”. Syntax in linguistics deals with the ways the elements of a sentence
or phrase can be arranged to express different meanings. In other words, it is set of
rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentence in a given
language, specifically word order. More simply, syntax can be defined as the
arrangement of words in a sentence. The term syntax is also is used to mean the
study of the syntactic properties of a language. It dictates words from different parts
of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought. Perhaps the most
important aspect of syntax is how the various parts of speech connect together.
Every language has rules that dictate types of words can be used in a sentence, and
how to interpret the resulting sentence. For this reason, discovering the syntactic
rules common to all languages is the goal of many syntacticians.
Syntax is one of the major components of grammar. Traditionally linguists
have recognized a basic distinction between syntax and morphology which is
primary concerned with the internal structures of words. However, this distinction
has been somewhat disrupted by recent research in lexicogrammar.
Syntax allows speakers to communicate complicated thoughts by arranging
small, simple units in meaningful ways. For example, in English, a sentence can be
simple as a one – word interjection, or it can be a lengthy composition with multiple
clauses strung together.
According to R.M.W. Dixon ( 1991), syntactic clues have to be treated with
care, and the relevant syntactic categories must be established empirically, not
determined a priori.
Syntax plays important roles in language, it makes human language
unlimited. Humans can create new sentences or phrases to express different
meanings with the rules of syntax.

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2.2.2. Semantics

The word semantics was first used by a French philologist, Michel Breal. In
international scientific vocabulary semantics is also called semasiology. The simple
definition of semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic expressions. The
formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry including
lexicology, syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others. It contrasts with syntax, the
study of the combination of units of a language without reference to their meaning,
and pragmatics – the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language,
their meaning, and the users of the language.
In linguistics, semantics the subfield that devoted to the study of meaning, as
inherent at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse. It is
also closely linked to the subjects of representation, reference and denotation. In
traditionally, semantics has included the study of sense and denotative reference,
truth conditions, argument structure, thematic roles, discourse analysis, and the
linkage of all these to syntax.
According to Hurford and Heasley (1983) semantics is the study of meaning
in language. Language is a mean of communication, and people use language to
communicate with other by making conversations, giving information, and other
things to make social relationship.
Morries as quoted by Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study of
the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable. And then he
revised his definition, saying that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals
with the signification of sign in all modes of signifying.
The concepts as well as the studies of syntax and semantics are basis study to
investigate syntax and semantic features of preposition “in” in English.
2.3. An overview of the prepositions
Prepositions are words used to combine nouns or noun structures to other
structures in a sentence. However, they have different characteristics and usage in

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each language. English prepositional usage may be treated in different ways
depending on the starting points chosen and the aspects that are being emphasized
2.3.1. Some features of prepositional phrases
2.3.1.1. Definition
In order to define prepositional phrases, this section focuses on the different
forms and the possible relations that a preposition can have. In the Dictionary of
Language, Crystal (1999) defines a preposition as “an item that typically precedes a
noun phrase to form a single constituent or structure” (p.271). This definition is
similar to many others since it defines prepositions by relating them to other
categories. In fact, Biber et.al (2007) maintains that “prepositions are links which
introduce prepositional phrases. As the most typical complement in a prepositional
phrase is a noun phrase, they can be regarded as a device which connects noun
phrases with other structure’’ (p.74). Similarlyy, Quirk et.al (2005) defines
prepositions by claiming that “central prepositions in English can be defined
negatively with three criterias. They cannot have as complement.
Prepositions cannot be defined without referring to other particles, which is
mainly caused by their connecting function. For this reason, researchers who dealt
with prepositions such as Quirk et al., Biber et al., and Saint-Dizier think that they
are function words that belong to the category of closed class items. However,
Radford (2009 a) claims that “nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions,
are often called content words” (p. 132) since prepositions, among other word
classes, do have meanings; “many of these have the semantic property of marking
location can be modified by right in the sense of ‘completely’, or by straight in the
sense of ‘directly’” (Radford, 2009 b, p.4). This view is also shared by other
grammarians such as Van Valin (2004) and Huddleston and Pullum (2005). Keizer
(2008) opts for the view that English prepositions are lexical items with the
exception of ‘of’ and ‘by’ when used with deverbal nouns.

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The difference between both views is that while the former focuses on
syntactic and morphological evidence, the second is based on meaning in
distinguishing content and function words. The claim maintained in this thesis is
that the distinction cannot be clear-cut; rather it is better seen as a scale ranging
from function to lexical words. This scale allows the presence of between cases,
where a single preposition can serve as a function or lexical word. The present
thesis seeks to study the use of prepositions in order to distinguish the grammatical
from the lexical cases. In addition to this distinction, prepositions are classified
according to whether they are simple or complex.
2.3.1.2. Structures
Prepositional phrases in English are usually made up by:
*A preposition as the head and prepositional complement.
E.g.: In the car
* Prepositional complement can be realized as:

Order

Structures

Examples

1

A noun

Look at the man.

2

A pronoun

Look at him.

3

A verb phrase

It contributed to building a new society.

4

A clause

Depend on what he said.

Table 2.1. Prepositional complement

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2.3.2. English prepositions
The important feature of preposition is that they cannot stand alone,
regardless of how many words they combine with. As prepositions are not
independent element, they always combine with other elements such as nouns,
pronouns, verbs. Thus, the study of preposition should focus on finding
characteristics of prepositional phrase than separating them from other elements.
2.3.2.1. Definitions
Preposition is a word that comes from Latin, a language in which such a

word is usually placed before its complement. It is often used in English, both in
spoken and written language. In the most general term, a preposition is the first
word of a phrase that contains a noun or a pronoun. Preposition is defined: “A
preposition may be defined as connecting word showing the relation of a noun or a
noun substitute to some other word in sentence”.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary a preposition “is a
word or group of words used before a noun or pronoun to show place, position, time
or method”. Agoi (2003) described preposition as a word or group of words used
with a noun or noun equivalents to show the link between that noun which it
governs and another word. According to Richard Nordquist, he defines preposition
as “a word that show relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a
sentence”. Ehrlich and Murphy (1990) state that preposition is a word conveys the
meaning of position, direction, time or other abstraction. Prepositions according to
Lawal (2004) indicate various relationships between words or phrases in sentence.
The relationship includes those of times, points, position, direction, and various
degrees of mental or emotional attitude. Wishon and Burks (1980)

state

“Prepositions are always followed by nouns or pronouns. They are connective
words that show the relationship between the nouns following them and one of the
basis sentences elements: subject, verb, object, or complement.”

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Another definition of preposition within traditional grammar is presented by
Curme (1935) “A preposition is a word that indicates a relation between the noun or
pronoun it governs and another words, which may be a verb, an adjective, or
another noun or pronoun”. This definition emphasizes the function of expression

relation. It offers an extremely comprehensive definition of a preposition.
Prepositions in English consist of one word (in, at, on, to) or two words
(ahead of) or three words (in front of). They are used with a lot of functions
including time, location, manner, means, quantity, purpose and state or condition. In
other words, prepositions have different functions and meaning in English
sentences.
The important feature of preposition is that they cannot stand alone,
regardless of how many words they are combined with (Downing and Locke, 1992).
As prepositions are not independent element, they are always combined with other
elements, such as nouns (at night), verbs (to give), and adverbs (for ever).
The part following a preposition is called its object. The object of a
preposition can be a noun, pronoun, a gerund or a noun clause. For example:
a noun: We gave a present to our secretaries.
a pronoun: We gave a present to them.
a gerund: We thought about giving a present to them.
a noun clause: We thought about giving a present to whoever worked for us.
(Lougheed, n.d)
2.3.2.2. Types of prepositions
In terms of components, prepositions are divided into two main groups:
simple prepositions and complex prepositions.
A simple preposition is made up of only one word. They are words like ‘in’,
‘at’, ‘on’, ‘to’, ‘off’, ‘about’, ‘for’, ‘by’, ‘along’, ‘following’, ‘until’, ‘with’,’
through, etc.

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E.g.: My cottage is on that road.
There are only two beds in the cottage.
My car is at the cottage.

They were driving to Edinburgh.
He was standing by the door.
The book is off the shelf.
We didn’t sleep until midnight.
As regards stress, simple prepositions can be divided into two groups:
- Prepositions which have no reduced form in their pronunciation such as
like, round, since, through.
- Prepositions which have reduced forms such as from /frɔm, frəm, frm/ and
where the choice of phonetic form varies according to function.
(Quirk et al, 1985)
Complex preposition is made of more than one word. According to Quirk et
al. (1979), most complex prepositions can be assigned to one of three categories:
adverb + preposition, verb/ adjective/ conjunction + preposition, preposition + noun
+ preposition.
In two-word sequences, the first word is an adverb, verb, adjective
conjunction, and the second word is a simple prepositions. These simple
prepositions are often

for, from, of, to or with. Some of two – word sequences:

‘away from’, ‘close to’, ‘instead of’, ‘up to’, ‘except for’, ‘because of’, ‘next to’,
‘due to’, ‘back of’, ‘according to’, etc. For example:
We had to leave early because of the bad weather.
I sat next to an old lady on the train.
Except for Margaret, everybody was in favour of the idea.

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She was sitting close to me.

She is up to the top ten students in her class.
According to me, she is a very good student.
I lived away from home when I was a student.
The type consisting of three words is the most numerous category of
complex prepositions, as in : Prep1 + N + Prep2 : ‘in line with’, ‘in connection
with’, ‘in term of’, ‘in favour of’, ‘on account of’, ‘in front of’, ‘on top of’, ‘ in spite
of’, ‘ at the back of’, ‘ in place of’, ‘in search if’, ‘ in comparison with’, ‘in view of’,
‘in addition to’ etc. For example:
In terms of money, her loss was small.
How many delegates are in favour of this motion
In line with latest trends in fashion, many dress designers have been
sacrificing elegance to audacity.
His name is at the back of the cover’s story.
In spite of being a good student, she failed the exams.
On account of raining I stay at home today.
Besides, complex prepositions may be subdivided according to which
preposition functions as Prep1 and Prep2 such as:

Structues

Examples

in + noun + of:

in view of, in search of, in place of, etc…

in + noun + with

in line with, in comparison with, etc…

by + noun + of

by virtue of, by dint of, etc…

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