Stephen van Vlack

Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of TESOL

Approaches to English Grammar

Spring 2004

Notes and comments on Yule Explaining English Grammar Chapter 6: Prepositions and Particles.

     The first distinction that Yule makes in this chapter is between prepositions and particles. The simplest way of describing this difference is to say that prepositions are linked (form a grammatical unit) with the noun phrase which directly follows it, thus making a prepositional phrase, which functions as a grammatical unit. Particles, on the other hand, form a unit with the verb that precedes them. Taking meaning into account, particles modify their partner verb in much the same way an adverb does. Below are two examples.

A. The mouse sat upon the couch.

B. James sat up and ate his lunch in silence.

Yule gives us a whole set of rules to determine whether words are functioning as prepositions or particles. Of these, the stress rule (particles are stressed while prepositions are not) is the most important because it helps us to recognize the structure in spoken situations. Otherwise the rules are not too important. They are strikingly similar to the tests I gave you earlier in the course on how to determine grammatical groupings.

     What Yule does with prepositions is again quite interesting. Yule then breaks down the prepositions into simple and complex. The distinction here is an easy and familiar one. Simple prepositions are usually made up of one word, while complex prepositions are composed of more than one word and include a noun. Simple prepositions can be further broken down into grammatical and lexical. Grammatical prepositions are ones that are the most common and do not seem to have a distinct meaning. Often they are able to be replaced by other prepositions without causing a meaning change. Lexical prepositions, on the other hand, do have a specific meaning and cannot be replaced without a shift in meaning.

A. I met him in England.

B. The sun is shining on England.

C. The hunter was laying in fear under the dancing elephant.

D. The hunter was laying in exhaustion on top of the dancing elephant.

Once he has broken the prepositions down, Yule then defends his separation by boldly claiming that grammatical prepositions really do not have meaning and that they react to the meanings of the nouns which follow them on a conceptual level. I agree with Yule`s claim except that I think prepositions are also sometimes affected by the nouns or verbs which precede them as well. Yule claims that there are just a few simple concepts that we have to be aware of to understand how grammatical prepositions are used.

These conceptual differences are based on locations in space, time, and metaphor.

Locations can be points in space. (no dimensions)

Locations can be lines or surfaces. (two dimensions)

Locations can be areas or interior spaces with volume. (three dimensions)

These dimensions qualities are affected by the nature of the verb. If the verb is static (no movement is indicated) then the following prepositions are used:

The porcupine lives at 123 Forest Drive.

The dog sat on the log.

The pig lives in the farmer`s house.

If the verb is dynamic, and movement is shown, different prepositions are used If the noun is the goal of the movement, the following prepositions are used;

The elephant went to the movies to escape the heat.

The dog climbed on(to) the log to escape the mean cat.

The man ran in(to) the house to escape the vicious dog.

If the movement is away from the following noun, the following prepositions are used.

After being beaten in a mugging, John decided to move away from the city.

The big, bad cat chased the dog off the log.

After making a mess, the pig was kicked out of the house.

If the movement is a long a perceived path, then the following prepositions are used.

The elephant drove past the forest on its way to the grocery store.

The dog ran along the path as it chased the terrified mailman.

The new cleaning woman made her way through the house to see how much work would have to be done.

In order to do this properly we need to look at the context. The idea of what is a surface or a location are often changeable. The concepts of location, surface, and area are also extendable to things that we do not normally conceive of as holding those properties, like a pair of pants or a ladder.

Distinct prepositions are also used in utterances involving time.

Very restricted points in time (at) (What specific point in measured time?)

Restricted units of time (on) (Which restricted unit of time?)

more extended periods of time (in) (Which extended period of time?)

In addition to location and time, prepositions are also used more or less systematically in metaphorical uses. For example, English speakers think of language and its component parts as a container.

I know it`s hard to write in paragraphs, but you will have to try.

The same container rule seems to fit when considering conceptual nouns, especially those that are related to emotions.

The cat and dog surprised the world by falling in love.

Particles (phrasal verbs) are a whole different concern. What makes all this very confusing is that the same lexical items used as prepositions are also used as particles. It is, therefore, important that you are able to spot the difference quickly and easily.

The division of phrasal verbs is mainly based on structural differences, more specifically whether the particle is separable from the verb they modify and, if so, whether that separability is obligatory or not.

Yule goes on to say that while there are many phrasal verbs with idiomatic meanings there is still an underlying system which can help us understand how they work.

If we look at the particles up and down, we can see a system underlying their use which is based on their basic meanings of physically higher and physically lower location respectively. By extension, these meanings can be stretched to include meanings such as `increase in` and `completion` with up and `decrease in` and `completion` with down. A further distinction is in the attitude the words bring to an utterance. Up typically indicates something positive while down is generally negative.

Other particles also have general meanings associated with them that help us better understand how they are used.

Off generally means a sense of disconnection.

A. The angry dog tried to take its collar off.

B. Turn off the radio before you go to sleep.

C. Sometimes I`d like to break his nose right off his face.

On generally means exactly the opposite. It indicates a sense of connection.

A. Bring on the turkey. We`ve been waiting for hours.

B. Put your jacket on. It`s freezing out.

C. Switch the engine on so I can hear it.

This is often extended to mean that the action is continuing.

A. Please keep talking. Go on. I`m listening.

B. After the defenders refused to surrender the castle, the battle raged on.

Out generally means towards an exterior location.

A. Get out of here before I throw you out.

B. John went out in search of his long lost love.

This is often extended to indicate a change of state.

A. All the people in the room were knocked out as the sleeping gas entered the room.

B. Half way through the night, the power gave out and we were plunged into darkness.

Away generally means disconnected location.

A. I wish the test we took last week would just go away.

B. After being told he won the lottery, Betty started giving money away to poor people.

In discourse, when we are using prepositions and particles in a larger context, there seem to be predictable ways in which they are used. In short, prepositions are restricted to the fringes of the utterances. We often find them either in the beginning where they are used to set the scene, or at the end, where they are giving extra information. They generally act as given information in that the concept they add information onto is usually already present.

A. The wind whirled around the house.

A. ?The house was encircled by the wind.

Once more, prepositions are usually used with the more larger of the concepts involved.

B. The model was seen in a beautiful dress.

B. ?The beautiful dress was seen surrounding the model.

In discourse, particles are often at the center of the action. They are linked to the verbs they modify and, as such, are central to the meaning of the utterance. They often present new information which accounts for the fact that when you have a particle and a preposition together, the particle must precede the preposition.

A. Jim ran away into the darkness.

A. * Jim ran into the darkness away.

This also helps explain the separability of particles. If the following object of the verb is heavy (is a full phrase or even a clause) then the particle is not separable from the verb because the new information is coming after the given information.

The same situation results from the concept of end weight, which claims that English likes larger chunks of information at the end of the sentence.

A. The dog was careful about not forgetting to bite the cat before it went to sleep that night.

This does not mean, for example that the weight always must be shifted to the end of the sentence.

A. The picture of my brother in the park I took was great.

B. The picture of my brother I took in the park was great.

C. The picture I took of my brother in the park was great.

D. ?The picture I took in the park of my brother was great.

E. *The picture was great I took of my brother in the park.