Topic 17 – Location is space: place, direction and distance - Oposinet

78-100 minutos

OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION.
1.1. Aims of the unit.
1.2. Notes on bibliography.
2. A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE NOTIONS OF SPATIAL
REFERENCE.
2.1. Linguistic levels involved in the notion of spatial reference.
2.2. On defining spatial reference: what and how.
2.3. Grammar categories: open vs. closed classes.
3. THE EXPRESSION OF SPATIAL REFERENCE: AN INTRODUCTION.
3.1. Prepositions: main features.
3.2. Spatial reference in terms of other grammatical categories.
3.3. A classification of prepositions: main functions.
3.2.1. The morphological function.
[Link]. Simple prepositions.
[Link]. Complex prepositions.
3.2.2. The syntactic function.
[Link]. The structure of prepositional phrase.
[Link]. Adposition vs. postposition types.
[Link]. Main syntactic functions.
[Link]. Spatial reference at sentence level.
3.2.3. The semantic function.
[Link]. The spatial reference.
[Link]. Basic spatial dimensions.
[Link]. The notions of position, direction and distance.
4. THE EXPRESSION OF POSITION.
4.1. The notion of simple position.
4.1.1. At-type prepositions.
4.1.2. In-type prepositions.
4.1.3. On-type prepositions.
4.2. The notion of relative position.
4.3. Position and direction.
4.4. The expression of place by other means.
5. THE EXPRESSION OF DIRECTION.
5.1. The notion of direction in relation to position.
5.2. Main types of directional prepositions.
5.2.1. Direction.
5.2.2. Passage.
5.2.3. Relative destination.
5.3. The notion of resultative meaning.
5.4. The placing of direction at sentence level.
5.5. The expression of direction by other means.
6. THE EXPRESSION OF DISTANCE.
6.1. The notion of distance.
6.2. Main type of prepositions.
6.3. The expression of distance by other means.
7. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.
8. CONCLUSION.
9. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
10. APPENDIX.
1. INTRODUCTION.
1.1. Aims of the unit.
Unit 17 is primarily aimed to examine in English the different ways of
expressing spatial reference in terms of place, direction and distance ,
namely achieved by means of prepositions, and also by means of
prepositional complements drawn from adverbs, adjectives, noun phrases
and other clause structures. In doing so, the study will be divided into nine
main chapters. Thus, Chapter 2 provides a theoretical framework for the
notion of spatial reference, and in particular, of those grammatical
categories which are involved in it. Moreover, within the field of grammar
linguistic theory, some key terminology is defined in syntactic terms so as
to prepare the reader for the descriptive account on the expression of
space localisation in subsequent chapters.
Chapter 3, then, presents and defines the notion of spatial reference mainly
regarding prepositions, adverbs and other grammatical categories involved.
Moreover, prepositions are classified according to their three main
functions: morphological, in terms of formation processes (simple and
complex prepositions); syntactic, which introduces the notion of
prepositional phrase, adposition and postposition types, main syntactic
functions, and their placing at sentence level; and finally, the semantic
function, in terms of different types of prepositions, among which we shall
focus on those referring to space localisation in terms of position, direction,
and distance.
Once the notion of spatial reference is established within the linguistic
framework, we are ready to examine the notion of space types individually.
Therefore, Chapter 4 offers a descriptive account of the expression of place
position by analysing, first, the notion of simple position (or absolute), in
which we distinguish three types: at, in and on-type prepositions; second,
we review the notion of relative position; third, the relationship between
position and direction; and finally, the expression of place by other means.
Similarly, Chapter 5 does the same on the expression of direction by
examining the notion of direction in relation to position, main types of
directional prepositions, among which we review direction, passage and
relative destination; then, we examine the notion of resultative meaning, the
placing of direction at sentence level, and finally, how the expression of
direction is carried out by other means.
Chapter 6 on the expression of distance starts by examining first, the notion
of distance; second, the main type of prepositions; and finally, how other
means rather than prepositions may also express distance. Chapter 7,
then, provides an educational framework for the expression of space
localisation within our current school curriculum, and Chapter 8 draws a
conclusion from all the points involved in this study. Finally, in Chapter 9 ,
bibliography will be listed in alphabetical order and in Chapter 10 , readers
are referred to an explanatory chart on a specific section.
1.2. Notes on bibliography.
In order to offer an insightful analysis and survey on the expression of
spatial reference in English, we shall deal with the most relevant works in
the field, both old and current, and in particular, influential grammar books
which have assisted for years students of English as a foreign language in
their study of grammar. For instance, a theoretical framework for the
expression of space localisation is namely drawn from the field of sentence
analysis, that is, from the work of Flor Aarts and Jan Aarts (University of
Nijmegen, Holland) in English Syntactic Structures (1988), whose material
has been tested in the classroom and developed over a number of years;
also, another essential work is that of Rodney Huddleston, English
Grammar, An Outline (1988).
Other classic references which offer an account of the most important and
central grammatical constructions and categories in English regarding the
expression of space localisation, are Quirk & Greenbaum, A University
Grammar of English (1973); Thomson & Martinet, A Practical English
Grammar (1986); and Greenbaum & Quirk, A Student’s Grammar of the
English Language (1990).
More current approaches to notional grammar are David Bolton and Noel
Goodey, Grammar Practice in Context (1997); John Eastwood, Oxford
Practice in Grammar (1999); Sidney Greenbaum, The Oxford Reference
Grammar (2000); Gerald Nelson, English: An Essential Grammar (2001);
Rodney Huddle ston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of
the English Language (2002); and. Angela Downing and Philip Locke, A
University Course in English Grammar (2002).
2. A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE NOTION OF SPATIAL
REFERENCE.
Before describing in detail the different ways of expressing spatial
reference in English, it is relevant to establish first a theoretical framework
for this notion, since it must be described in grammatical terms. In fact, this
introductory chapter aims at answering questions such as where this notion
is to be found within the linguistic level, what it describes and how and
which grammar categories are involved in its description at a functional
level. Let us examine, then, in which linguistic level it is found.
2.1. Linguistic le vels involved in the notion of spatial reference.
In order to offer a linguistic description of the notion of spatial reference, we
must confine it to particular levels of analysis so as to focus our attention
on this particular aspect of language. Yet, although there is no consensus
of opinion on the number of levels to be distinguished, the usual description
of a language comprises four major components: phonology, grammar,
lexicon, and semantics, out of which we get five major levels: phonological,
morphological and syntactic, lexical, and semantic (Huddleston, 1988).
First, the phonology describes the sound level, that is, consonants, vowels,
stress, intonation, and so on. Secondly, since the two most basic units of
grammar are the word and the sentenc e, the component of grammar
involves the morphological level (i.e. simple and complex prepositions) and
the syntactic level (i.e. word order in the sentence ). Third, the lexicon, or
lexical level, lists vocabulary items, specifying how they are pronounced,
how they behave grammatically, and what they mean. Finally, another
dimension between the study of linguistic form and the study of meaning is
semantics, or the semantic level, to which all four of the major components
are related. We must not forget that a linguistic description which ignores
meaning is obviously incomplete, and in particular, when dealing with the
notions of space localisation.
Therefore, we must point out that each of the linguistic levels discussed
above has a corresponding component when analysing the notion under
study. Thus, phonology deals with pronunciation of prepositions (i.e. out,
onto, forward, through, behind, etc ) and help distinguish prepositions from
adverbs since prepositions normally unstressed are accented when they
are prepositional adverbs (i.e. He ‘stayed in the ‘house vs. He ‘stayed ‘in );
morphology deals with compound words (i.e. into, onto, etc ); and syntax
deals with which combinations of words constitute grammatical strings and
which do not (i.e. NOT: she goes at school in bike BUT she goes to school
by bike).
On the other hand, lexis deals with the expression of spatial reference
regarding the choice between prepositional phrases or adverbial phrases
(i.e. He works here vs. He drives in this bank), lexical choices regarding
different types of prepositions (i.e. on vs. above vs. over; opposite vs. in
front of, and so on), the use of specific prepositions (i.e. upwards, onto,
inside, etc ), and other means such as other formal realizations of these
notions (i.e. a noun phrase, a verbless clause, a finite clause, etc); and
finally, semantics deals with meaning where syntactic and morphological
levels do not tell the difference (i.e. ‘He left the keys on the table = on the
surface and not inside a drawer).
2.2. On defining spatial reference: what and how.
On defining the term ‘spatial reference’, we must link this notion (what they
are) to the grammar categories which express it (how it is showed).
Actually, the term ‘spatial reference’ is intended to add information about
‘where’ a situation has happened, by providing details about ‘place’,
‘direction’ and ‘distance’ in order to fully describe the action.
On making the appropriate choice of prepositions, following Greenbaum &
Quirk (1990), we may refer to a point in space (i.e. in, on, at, etc ), a line of
passage (i.e. across, over, along, etc ), a surface (i.e. on, through, onto, etc
), an area (i.e. inside, outside, in, out, etc), and a volume (i.e. through,
under, behind, etc ). We must point out that this function is mainly carried
out by prepositions, but also by other grammatical categories which
function as complements in prepositional phrases, such as adverbs or
adverbial phrases (i.e. over here, over there ), noun phrases (i.e. three
kilometres away) and other clause structures like idiomatic expressions (i.e.
so far, as far as I am concerned, in my view, etc).
Following Traditional Grammar guidelines, prepositions are classified
according to their main semantic roles: space (position, direction, passage),
time (position, duration ), cause and purpose, means and stimulus,
accompaniment, concession, and other relations, from which we shall
mainly deal with those referring to spatial reference. Moreover, these
notions are also classified according to their morphological and syntactic
function which is mainly predicative.
2.3. Grammar categories: open vs. closed classes.
In order to confine the notion of spatial relations to particular grammatical
categories, we must review first the difference between open and closed
classes. Yet, grammar categories in English can be divided into two major
sets called open and closed classes. The open classes are verbs, nouns,
adjectives and adverbs, and are said to be unrestricted since they allow the
addition of new members to their membership, whereas the closed
classes are the rest: prepositions, conjunctions, articles (definite and
indefinite ), numerals, pronouns, quantifiers and interjections, which belong
to a restricted class since they do not allow the creation of new members.
Then, as we can see, when expressing spatial relations, we are mainly
dealing with prepositions that, when taken to phrase and sentence level,
may be substituted by other grammatical categories, in particular, adverbial
phrases, noun phrases and specific clause structures. The classification of
phrases reflects an established syntactic order which is found for all four of
the open word classes (i.e. verb, noun, adjective, and adverb) where it is
very often possible to replace open classes by an equivalent expression of
another class (i.e. noun, adjective, preposition or another adverb), and also
closed classes (i.e. prepositions, conjunctions, quantifiers) as we shall see
later.
3. THE EXPRESSION OF SPATIAL REFERENCE: AN INTRODUCTION.
In this introductory section, the expression of spatial reference will be first
examined through the category of prepositions, and then we shall offer a
descriptive approach through other grammatical categories related to it,
which function as complements in prepositional structures, such as
adverbs, nouns and other grammatical structures like finite and non-finite
clauses, idiomatic expressions or verbless sentences as possible answers
to the question of Where …?
Moreover, before we continue, we must note that, although prepos itions
are mainly classified following morphological and syntactic rules, our study
will be primarily based on the semantic field, since it is here where we find
the notion of prepositions of place , and therefore, it will lead us to the
analysis of spatialreference in terms of position, direction and distance.
In the following chapters, then, we shall examine the main issues that will
provide the base for the whole unit. Thus, (1) main features of prepositions;
(2) the expression of spatial reference in terms of other grammatical
categories, (3) a classification of prepositions according to their main
functions, thus morphological, syntactic, and semantic, in order to fully
develop the latter one for our purposes.
First, within the morphological function, we shall examine the formation of
prepositions (simple and complex). Second, within the syntactic function,
we shall examine the notion of prepositional phrase and the different types
of syntactic organization (adposition vs. postposition), together with the
main syntactic functions, and the placing of spatial reference at sentence
level. And finally, within the semantic function, we shall examine, first, the
notion of spatial reference; second, basic spatial dimensions; and finally,
the different types of prepositions, from which we shall draw the main issue
of this unit: the expression of position, direction and distance.
3.1. Prepositions: main features.
Following Greenbaum & Quirk (1990), prepositions belong to the closed
class items which first, are formally invariable and second, connect two
units in a sentence, specifying a relationship between them (i.e. place,
time, instrument, cause, etc). The former of these two units is often a noun,
adjective or verb, and the former, normally represented by a prepositional
complement, is a noun or any other phrase similar to it, such as pronouns
(This is a present for him), nominalized adjectives (He fought against the
most intelligent), nominalized adverbs (We observed him from here),
infinitives (He ran to win ), and noun phrases (A man in the front row).
According to Huddleston (1988), at the general level the preposition is one
type of adposition, the other type being the postposition. Compare the
order in the sentence: ‘Does he live in this house?’ vs. ‘Where does he live
in?’, to be discussed in subsequent sections. The adposition may then be
defined as a grammatically distinct closed class of words with the following
properties:
(1) First, they include, among the most central members of the class, words
expressing such spatial relations as ‘at’, ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘under’, ‘over’, ‘to’, ‘from’,
etc. Very often they also include words serving to show the semantic role or
grammatical function in the clause of their noun phrase complement; for
instance, in English ‘by’ marks the agent phrase in passive clauses (i.e. He
was arrested by the police); ‘to’ marks the recipient role with such verbs as
give, send, talk, listen, etc (i.e. Listen to me); ‘from’ marks the source with
verbs such as be, come, emerge (i.e. He is from California ) and adjectives
such as different (i.e. You car is different from mine ).
(2) Second, they usually show no inflectional marks (i.e. in –preposition –
vs. inner –adverb-).
Although not to enter into inflectional contrasts is a negative property, it
helps differenciate prepositions from verbs, adjectives and nouns, which
prototypically do inflect. However, prepositions allow only a modest amount
of modification by expressions of temporal or spatial extent, as in ‘three
hours after the start’, ‘far below the surface’. Also, degree modification with
‘very much’ (not very alone) tends to occur with metaphorical rather than
literal meanings of prepositions, as in ‘You are very much against the idea’.
(3) Third, the second unit in a prepositional structure, which is a
prepositional complement, may be linked to a verb (i.e. He is drinking out of
a dirty glass), to an adjective phrase (i.e. He is afraid of spiders), and to a
noun phrase (i.e. The man in blue jeans is looking at you ). In these cases,
the dependents of verbs can be either noun phrases (out of a dirty glass) or
prepositional phrases (in the kitchen); the dependents of noun phrases will
tend to occupy the more nuclear functions of subject (a man in the queue )
and object (She believes in God); and prepositional phrases will function as
adverbials, that is, adjuncts (In a few minutes, we’ll know the results/We’ll
know the results in a few minutes).
(4) Finally, they prototypically take a noun phrase complement which, as
stated before, is realized by pronouns (This is a present for him),
nominalized adjectives (He fought against the most intelligent), nominalized
adverbs (We observed him from here ), infinitives (He ran to win ), and
noun phrases (A man in the front row).
3.2. Spatial reference in terms of other grammatical categories.
Prepositions denoting spatial reference, then, may be represented by
means of other categories within a larger linguistic structure in order to
modify verbs, adjectives and nouns. For instance, the answer to Where is
the book? may be mainly drawn from the closed category of adverbs and
adverbial phrases (i.e. As adjunct: On the shelf would be the best place; or
disjunct: From my point of view, it would be placed on the shelf) or linked as
complement to other closed categories, such as verbs (i.e. I put it in the
box), prepositional verbs (verb + preposition), as in account for, looking for,
and so on; adjectives (i.e. It is ready for recycling it) or other grammatical
structures, such as infinitives (i.e. Andrew took it to read it).
We must bear in mind that prepositions function as head in a prepositional
phrase structure, and that prepositional phrases in turn have a variety of
functions related to other grammatical categories, for instance, within the
structure of a verbal phrase, noun phrase, adjectival phrase, adverbial
phrase, a larger prepositional phrase, or at sentence level, functioning as a
connector (disjuncts: however, although, because, due to, etc ).
This is not to say that all prepositions are found in all of these functions, far
from it, but virtually all can occur as head in phrases functioning as
adjuncts, that is, modifiers in verbal phrases (i.e. in the morning) or
peripheral dependent in a sentence (i.e. In my view, you are right). In this
respect they are like adverbs but they differ most sharply from adverbs in
their complementation and in the fact that many of them do also occur in
other constructions. So far, let us briefly examine the expression of spatial
reference in terms of other grammatical categories.
(1) First, let us examine the duality between prepositions and prepositional
adverbs. As stated before, another major kind of expression which can
function like a prepositional phrase is an adverb or an adverbial phrase,
which belong to the closed-class category, and which behaves like a
preposition with ellipted complement. Note ‘A car drove past the door’
where ‘past’ is a preposition vs. ‘A car drove past’ where ‘past’ is a
prepositional adverb meaning ‘something or someone identified in the
context’.
Moreover, it must be borne in mind that an adverbial phrase may also
function as adjunct or modifier, as in ‘Despite the fine weather, we stayed in
all day’ (place adjunct) or postmodifier or connector, as in ‘The day before ,
I had seen him in the town centre’ (time adjunct). Note that three
prepositions not found in the adjunct construction are ‘than’, ‘except’ and
‘but’ while ‘of’ although overall the most frequent preposition, is here more
or less restricted to idiomatic expressions like of course, of his own free
will, and so on.
So far, many words can be used as either prepositions or adverbs, for
instance compare: ‘He got off the bus at the corner ’ (preposition) vs. ‘He
got off at the corner ’ (adverb). The most important words of this type are
above, about, across, along, before, bhind, below, besides, by, down, in,
near, off, on, over, past, round, since, through, under, up . As we may note,
most of them refer to spatial positions: ‘Peter is behind us’ (preposition) vs.
‘He’s a long way behind’ (adverb); ‘She climbed over the wall’ (preposition)
vs. ‘You’ll have to climb over too’ (adverb), and so on.
It is worth mentioning at this point the contrast phrasal verbs (verb +
adverb) vs. prepositional verbs (verb + preposition). Following Aarts (1988),
they differ from phrasal verbs in that, as a rule, the adverb in phrasal verbs
(call up) is stressed (i.e. They have called ‘up all applicants for an
interview) whereas in prepositional verbs the stress falls on the verb, the
preposition being unstressed (i.e. Just ‘look at him/It is better not to ‘call on
him).
Another variant regarding phrasal verbs is that of phrasal-prepositional
verbs, which are combinations of a verb + an adverb + a preposition.
However, the majority of them are non- transitive verbs (i.e. I am afraid I do
not feel up to the job; We do no get on well with our neighbours; Do you go
in for squash?).
(2) Another kind of syntactic structure involves clause subordination, where
we find different types regarding verbs. Thus (a) the more nuclear
dependents of the verb, subject in clause structure and complement in
verbal structure, which are prototypically filled by noun phrases (i.e. in the
street, after two hours); (b) prepositional phrases are mainly either of place
(i.e. at home ), direction (i.e. to school) or time (i.e. at night).
We also distinguish (c) complements to prepositional verbs, where the verb
selects from a handful of short prepositions (i.e. ask for, consist of, depend
on, hope for). In this type, verbs are usually monotransitive complement
verbs, or in other words, the constituent that follows them function as direct
object (i.e. long for, refer to, rely on, succeed in, think of/about, wait for,
wish for , and so on).
Moreover, we find (d) non-finite verb clauses (or infinitival clauses) which
function as modifier of the verbal phrase, and in which the verb is (i) an
infinitive, as in ‘I was surprised to hear her opinion’, and (ii) a present
participle –ing, as in ‘I was surprised at her saying this’. Furthermore, (e)
we may find the finite content clause as modifier of an adjectival phrase, as
in ‘I was so surprised that I couldn’t say anything’. Also, we may find (f) a
noun phrase (i.e. I was surprised at the financial estimates’) or (g) a wh–
phrase (i.e. I was surprised at what she said).
Furthermore, (h) we must not forget that we also find place conjuncts
(Quirk, 1973), which denote stqatic position and also direction, movement,
and passage under the general term ‘direction’. Place adjuncts are mainly
realized by means of prepositional phrases (i.e. in the park, out of my
house, etc ) since these roles can be clearly and conveniently specified
through the respective prepositional meaning (i.e. in-out, from-to, up-down,
through, onto, etc ) although sometimes we need noun phrases to amplify
meaning (i.e. a very long way, several miles away).
Most placed adjuncts are prepositional phrases (i.e. in a small village, a
long way from here, past the sentry, wherever he went, from the desk, etc )
which evoke responses to a ‘where’ question, such as to position (where ?),
direction (where?), source (where from?), and distance (how far?) with
stative or dynamic verbs. For instance, position and distance use stative
verbs (live, stay) whereas direction and source use dynamic verbs (go to,
come from).
And finally, (i) we must not forget that idioms constitute that ‘free process of
forming lexical lexemes’ which permit grammatical contrasts (i.e. What
about…?/It’s up to you/It’s over/Eat it up/etc ). This process is known by
Huddleston (1988) as lexicalization, that is, the process of forming lexical
items or single unit of vocabulary which can be larger than usual. Yet,
idioms may cause conflict instead of the usual congruence between what
counts as a unit from a lexical point of view and what counts as a unit from
a grammatical point of view.
Thus, in the sentence ‘They are pulling Daniel’s leg’, the lexical unit is pull +
the possessive component + leg, but this is clearly not a grammatical
constituent. Such a mismatch between lexicon and grammar is found in the
prepositional sequences of idioms. Lexicalisation, then, leads to large-scale
reduction in the range of permitted grammatical contrasts, contrasts in
inflectional number for the noun (by virtues of ), in choice of the determin er
(for this sake of the premier) or in presence or absence of modifiers (in
immediate front of ), among many others.
In the sequence verb + noun + preposition idioms, the noun cannot be
modified nor can it become the subject of a passive sentence. Consider
then the following sentences in ‘We caught sight of the plane’ vs. ‘We
caught sudden sight of the plane’. For these reasons we look upon such
idioms as invisible units having the function of predicator in the structure of
the sentence. These multi-word verbs are always monotransitive (Aarts,
1988). Other sequences are ‘make allowance for, make fun of, pay
attention to, take advantage of, take care of, take notice of , and so on’.
Then, as we can see, all these items have the same function but belong to
different grammatical categories or class (i.e. noun, adjective, finite
clauses, and so on). We may observe that although such subordinate
clauses have broadly the same function as adverbs, we do not normally
find anything like the close semantic equivalence to adverbs illustrated
above for prepositional phrases.
Then, once we have seen how both function and word class are relevant
for our present purposes, we are ready to examine the expression of
spatial reference, and especially, position, direction and distance through
them. These expressions can be grouped together into word classes (also
called parts of speech ) following morphological, syntactic, and semantic
rules, bearing in mind the phonological one when pronouncing prepositions
or other periphrastic expressions (i.e. in the a ir).
3.3. A classification of prepositions: main functions.
Prepositions are classified according to their main functions, which
correspond to three main types: (1) the morphological function, by which
prepositions are simple or complex; (2) the syntactic function, which is
related to the structure of prepositional phrases and word order of
prepositional phrases at the sentence level; and finally, (3) the semantic
function, which is related to intrinsic aspects of prepositions , in particular
for our purposes, how to express position, direction and distance.
We shall follow then five main figures in this field in order to develop this
section, thus Quirk & Greenbaum (1973), Sánchez Benedito (1975),
Thomson & Martinet (1986), Huddleston (1988), Aarts (1988), Greenbaum
& Quirk (1990), Eastwood (1999) and Nelson (2001).
3.2.1. The morphological function.
The open class ‘preposition’ is, then, the most common repository for the
expression of spatial reference (i.e. position: in, on, at, above, under;
direction: to, from, along, up, down; and distance: near, next to, away from,
after 2 km) together with adverbial phrases (i.e. towards, on the top of, etc
).
As seen before, prepositions are basically invariable although they may
allow a modest amount of modification in the expressions of temporal and
spatial extent. Yet, morphologically speaking, we may distinguish two types
of prepositions: simple, which consist of one word (i.e. at, between, by,
from, in, on, up) and complex, which are multi-word combinations (i.e. in
front of, next to, out of).
[Link]. Simple prepositions.
With respect to simple prepositions, we must note that most of the common
English prepositions are monosyllabic items, such as at, in, on, to, from,
typically unstressed and often with reduced vowel
except when deferred. It is worth pointing out that ‘deferred’ prepositions is
a term coined by Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) which refers to those
prepositions which do not precede their complements but are placed after
them (i.e. Where are you from?).
[Link]. Complex prepositions.
With respect to complex prepositions, we must say that these polysyllabic
prepositions are also popular, and that some of these compounds were
formed historically from the monosyllabic ones (i.e. inside, outside, within,
into, onto, etc ) or derived from participles (i.e. during, concerning, granted)
or adopted from other languages (i.e. despite, except, etc ). Regarding
prepositions of foreign origin, not all of them are thoroughly ‘adapted’ in
general use, as in ‘que, re, vis-à-vis, à propos’. Thus although prepositions
are a closed class in comparison with truly open classes like nouns, they
are less literally a closed class than determiners or pronouns (Greenbaum
& Quirk, 1990).
The number of prepositions has been increased by mainly combining
prepositions with other words to form ‘complex prepositions’, among which
we find three main categories: (a) first, a simple preposition preceded by an
adverb or preposition (adverb/preposition + preposition), as in ‘through
along, away from, out of, up to, etc’; (b) second, a simple preposition
preceded by a participle (verb), adjective, or conjunction
(participle/adjective/conjunction + preposition), as in ‘owing to, due to,
because of ); and finally, (c) a simple preposition followed by a noun and
then a further simple preposition (prep + noun + prep), as in ‘by means of,
in front of, with respect to, on behalf of, etc’. This type is by far the most
numerous category, where the noun in some complex prepositions is
preceded by a definite or indefinite article (i.e. on the top of).
Finally, there are some comments worth mentioning, for instance, firstly,
regarding phonology, polysyllabic prepositions are normally stressed, and
in complex prepositions, the stress falls on the word (adverb, noun, etc),
preceding the final preposition; and secondly, regarding items of quasi-
preposition status, we must include those which admit comparison, such as
‘near (to)’, as well as ‘than’ and ‘as’ which can also be conjunctions. For
instance, ‘Your car is further than my car’ (conjunction), ‘Your car is further
than it’ (conjunction with ellipsis, rather formal), and ‘Your car is further than
mine’ (preposition).
3.2.2. The syntactic function.
Regarding the syntactic function, prepositions, as seen, play their role
within a larger linguistic structure in order to modify verbs, adjectives, and
nouns by means of other categories. Consequently, in order to examine the
expression of spatial reference through them we shall review first the notion
of prepositional phrase and then, the different types of syntactic
organization (adposition vs. postposition ) by means of which word order is
established within the structure of the prepositional phrase.
[Link]. The structure of prepositional phrase.
The structure of prepositional phrase, as seen before, is that of preposition
+ prepositional complement (i.e. at + the bus stop, from + what she said, by
+ cleaning the window) which is characteristically a noun phrase or a wh-
clause or present participle (-ing) clause. Their head phrases usually
function as dependents of verbs, nouns and adjectives and, therefore, this
is why this sequence is known as a prepositional phrase.
This structure is determined, according to Aarts (1988), by its two functions:
prepositional and prepositional complement. This means the constituent
realizing the former (in) governs the one realizing the latter (in Paris). Both
functions are obligatory and they usually occur immediately after each
other, as in ‘At the end of the alley you will find the old black cat’ At five
o’clock we had run that distance’ or ‘The oak behind the pond seems to be
dying’ ‘They are selling their inheritance at exceedingly low prices’.
[Link]. Adposition vs. postposition types.
The immediate constituents of prepositional phrases that function on clause
or sentence level may, under certain conditions, be found in different places
in the clause or sentence. So far, normally a preposition must be followed
by its complement, but there are some circumstances in which this does
not happen. We shall review these two cases under the heading of
adposition and postposition as different types of word order in the
sentence. Thus,
(1) adposition, that is, prepositions preceeding their complements, are
usually placed after the predicate or in final position when expressing
spatial relations (i.e. at, in, on, under, opposite, from, through + the car),.
Note that at the sentence level, when ocurring next to time reference,
spatial prepositions preceed it (i.e. I saw you in the bank yesterday
morning).
Spatial relations often occur in initial position but for the sake of emphasis
(i.e. To which town are you travelling to? ), which denotes a formal style,
although sometimes it may be postposed, being considered then, informal
English according to Quirk (1973; 1990) and Thomson & Martinet (1986),
as in ‘Which town are you travelling to?’
(2) The other type is postposition, that is, when prepositions are placed
after their complement, either because the complement has to take first
position in the clause, or because it is absent. In this case, the prepositional
complement occurring in initial position and the prepositional after the
predicate or in final position is possible in informal English. It is worth noting
that postposition is referred to as ‘deferred prepositions’ by Quirk (1990),
and also compared superficially to prepositional adverbs, identical in form
with the corresponding prepositions except that, unlike them, they are
never uns tressed (i.e. I should have parked the car opposite the ‘house
and not in ‘front).
This detachment of the two immediate constituents of a prepositional
phrase may take place in the following cases, which are optional since they
depend chiefly on stylistic preference:
(a) in WH- questions, where WH- interrogative pronouns function as
constituents (prepositional complements) of sentences. When the sentence
is simple, it is either interrogative (i.e. Where are you travelling to? ) or
exclamatory (i.e. What a beautiful place you are travelling to!). Note that
questions beginning with a preposition +
what/which/whom/whose/where/etc are used to be thought ungrammatical
but it is now accepted as a colloquial form. Compare ‘To whom are you
talking?’ (formal) vs. ‘Who are you talking to?’ (informal).
Yet, with some simple prepositions (i.e. through) and most complex ones
(i.e. in front of, through along,), postposition is not allowed.
(b) in WH- clauses, where WH- clauses with postposed prepositions can
fulfil most of the major sentence functions. These nominal relative clauses
are always introduced by a wh- element functioning as subject (i.e. Where
he is travelling is a touristic place), object complement (i.e. You can go
whatever place you want), or prepositional complement (i.e. Decide on
whatever place you like), that is, they may be finite (i.e. Where they are
staying in is not cheap ) as well as non-finite (i.e. I do not know where to go
to).
(c) Similarly in relative clauses, a preposition placed before which/whom
(i.e. the friend with which I travelled to Ireland) can be moved to the end of
the sentence, but the relative pronoun is often omitted (i.e. The friend I
travelled with ). Note that in the former case, it is considered to be formal
style whereas in the latter, it is rather informal.
(d) However, not all cases are optional, for instance, passive
constructions, where the subject of a passive construction corresponds to
the prepositional complement in the active analogue; thus ‘They have paid
for the meal’ vs. ‘The meal has been paid for’.
(e) Also, where the prepositional complement is thematized in finite and
non-finite clauses 1 , that is, functioning respectively as postmodifier in
sentences with noun and adjective phrases, or sentences with infinitives or
–ing clauses. Thus, on finite clauses with noun phrases: ‘Marbella, a nice
place to go to, is crowded now’ and ‘The house where we stayed in is
Andrea’s ’; on adjective phrases: ‘She was not sure who to ask for’.
1 Following Aarts (1988), finite verb phrases contain a finite verbal form
which is morphologically marked for thecategory of tense and which may, in
addition, be marked for the categories of mood and concord (i.e. he writes
). However, non-finite verbal forms are not morphollogically marked, and
make reference to infinitive forms and participles, both present (-ing) and
past (-ed), as in ‘writing’ or ‘written’.
On the other hand, regarding non-finite clauses, here you are the following
examples with infinitive: ‘It is uncomfortable to sit on that sofa’ or ‘That sofa
is uncomfortable to sit on’, and with –ing clauses: ‘It is not worth talking to
her now’ or ‘She is not worth talking to’.
(f) Finally, Thomson & Martinet points out one more case of adposition, that
of phrasal verbs, where the preposition/adverb remains after its verb, so
the formal type of construction is not possible. Compare: ‘The children I
was looking after was Chinese’ vs. ‘The children I was looking was Chinese
for’.
[Link]. Main syntactic functions.
We shall briefly review now, following Quirk (1973), the main syntactic
functions of prepositional phrases regarding spatial reference, as described
before. Thus:
(1) as adjuncts (i.e. The children were playing in the swimming pool); (2) as
attitudinal disjuncts (i.e. in view of);
(3) as conjuncts (i.e. As far as I am concerned, this report is excellent);
(4) as postmodifier in a noun phrase (i.e. The boys on the bus were singing
); (5) as complements of a verb (i.e. It depends on you);
(6) as complements of an adjective (i.e. Anne is so different from her
sister).
(7) other functions as the nominal one, functioning as subject of a sentence
(i.e. Between ten and eleven will suit me).
[Link]. Spatial reference at sentence level.
Before we move on to a semantic classification of space prepositions, we
shall examine the position of spatial reference at the sentence level since in
our study it is relevant to know where to place it. Similar to Spanish ones, it
is worth pointing out that it is not sensible to establish strict rules regarding
spatial reference position since it may be submitted to changes under the
influence of emphasis, question structures, and old/new information. Yet,
we may distinguish two different types of considerations: (1) general and
(2) particular cases.
[Link].1. General considerations.
The placing of prepositions may vary depending on specific syntactic and
semantic guidelines but generally, word order is normally determined by the
syntactic function, that is, depending on the grammatical element it
complements. Thus, on complenting a verb, it is placed after it (i.e. they
worked in the field all day); on complementing an adjective/adverb, it is
placed after (i.e. worried about you); and finally, on complementing a
sentence by means of an adverbial/prepositional phrase, it has final
position (i.e. They will go to Murcia tomorrow).
So, we observe that in English spatial reference is said to have a fixed
position within the sentence structure (i.e. He came here when she left
home; David is at school), usually in predicative positions, middle or final.
In fact, following Sánchez Benedito (1975), prepositions are normally
placed before their complements (i.e. in the air, on the beach, for you) and
the most common position is the final one, that is, at the end of the
sentence, as in ‘Love is in the air, let’s go to the beach , I have a present
for you ’.
Moreover, final position is restricted to certain grammatical categories, such
as adverbial and prepositiona l phrases, and semantically, with non-
essential information since emphasis places prepositions in initial position
(i.e. At home there is someone waiting for you ). In addition, note that there
can be more than one prepositional or adverbial phrase in end position (i.e.
He turned up at the door entrance(place) in a wet T-shirt (manner) last night
(time)).
Furthermore, when there is a close link in meaning between a verb and a
preposition, the preposition goes next to the verb, especially with verbs of
movement (i.e. come, go, move, jump, turn, etc ), as in ‘My children go to
school every day ). It is worth noting that a phrase of place comes before
time (i.e. She came here (place) last night (time)). But often two adverbial
phrases can go in either order (i.e. The concert was held at the stadium two
weeks ago or two weeks ago at the stadium).
[Link].2. Particular cases.
Following Sánchez Benedito (1975), when dealing with particular cases, we
mainly deal with prepositions in initial or final position due to specific
syntactic changes at the sentence level. Thus, we distinguish three main
cases:
(1) First of all, prepositions can go in front position in WH- questions and
exclamations, where WH- interrogative pronouns function as constituents
(prepositional complements) of sentences (i.e. Where are you travelling to?
) or exclamatory (i.e. What a beautiful place you are travelling to!). Note
that questions beginning with a preposition + where/what/etc are used to
be thought ungrammatical but it is now accepted as a colloquial form.
Compare ‘To whom are you talking ?’ (formal) vs. ‘Who are you talking to?’
(informal).
(2) Secondly, in relative clauses , where the preposition placed before
which/whom (i.e. the friend with which I travelled to Ireland) can be moved
to the end of the sentence. In these cases, the relative pronoun is often
omitted (i.e. The friend I travelled with ). Note that in the former case, it is
considered to be formal style whereas in the latter, it is rather informal.
(3) Finally, where the prepositional complement is thematized in finite
clauses that is, functioning respectively as postmodifier of noun, pronoun,
or adjective phrases. Thus, on finite clauses with noun phrases: ‘It was a
very nice house to live in’; with pronouns : ‘There is nowhere to go to ’; and
finally, with adjective phrases: ‘Cristine is impossible to talk to’.
3.2.3. The semantic function.
Semantically speaking, there are various types of relational meanings
among which place and time (here and now) are said to be the most
prominent ones and easy to identify. Other relationships such as those of
instrument (with paper and ink) and cause (by the fact that) are also easy
to recognize but it is not so easy to describe their prepositional meanings.
[Link]. The spatial reference.
Yet, for our purposes we shall concentrate on the spatial reference and the
expression of it. As seen, the term ‘spatial reference’ may provide details
about ‘position’, ‘direction’ and ‘distance’ by addressing a wide range of
prepositions with reference to points in space (i.e. in, on, at, etc ), lines of
passage (i.e. across, over, along, etc ), surface (i.e. on, through, onto, etc ),
area (i.e. inside, outside, in, out, etc ), volume (i.e. through, under, behind,
etc ), direction (i.e. to, from, to wards, etc), movement (i.e. through, past,
across, etc ), among others.
Most of these details about an action are either spatial or figuratively
derived from notions of physical space, which often overlap different
semantic ideas (i.e. at home/at five o’clock ). Thus, the preposition ‘in’ may
have different meanings depending on the context: ‘in this room’ (place) vs.
‘in the present month ’ (time). Also, compare ‘in danger’ (adverbial) vs. ‘in
all seriousness’ (manner). Moreover, we also find idiomatic expressions,
such as ‘I ran across him today; over and over again; to put up with
something; they’re about to go; time is up’ and so on.
[Link]. Basic spatial dimensions.
We must therefore begin by understanding the ways in which prepositions
refer to some of the basic spatial dimensions, which according to Quirk
(1990) show three different types of distinctions as represented in an
imaginary chart. Thus, on the horizontal axis, prepositions are classified,
first, (1) as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ (in vs. out; to vs. from), and second, (2)
as ‘destination’ or ‘direction’ types (Quirk, 1973) which refer to movement
with respect to a static location , in contrast with
‘position’ types, which refer to static locations (see Appendix 1).
Thirdly, on the vertical axis (3) we distinguish three dimension types. Thus,
the first type (type 0), refers to point, which is a dimensionless location with
no reference to length, width or height. It ignores the dimensional reference
by treating location as ‘a point even if in reality it is a continent’ (i.e. He
walked to the bar or she is at the cottage ). This type is linked to at-type
prepositions, such as ‘to, away, away from, etc).
The second type (type 1 or 2) refers to line and surface , which embrace
‘what is in real space either one-dimensional or two-dimensional’. In other
words, with a preposition like ‘on’ or on-types (onto, off, across, over,
along), we may refer either to (a) one -dimensional object (i.e. Sign on this
line!/You can walk along the river/across the frontier) making reference to
length, but not height, width or depth, or (b) two-dimensional objects in
terms of surface, that is, lenght and width, but not height, where the surface
is often the top of some object but not necessarily horizontal. In this
type,‘the bar’ or ‘the cottage’, previously mentioned, become dimensional
places, covered by a roof.
Other examples are: ‘fall on to the ground, take something off the wall, look
through the window, go across the field’, and so on.
The third type (type 2 or 3) refers to area or volume , that is, two actual
dimensions embracing two- dimensional or three-dimensional space. Thus,
(a) if the place is regarded as two-dimensional or as an area, this suggests
that a piece of ground or territory is enclosed by boundaries. The
preposition‘in’ and the like (i.e. inside,within, into, through, out, etc ) is
capable of being used with objects which are essentially two-dimensional,
as in ‘ The horse is in the field’ since ‘the field’ is thought of as an enclosed
space. Compare: ‘on the beach’ which is regarded as open space.
We may also achieve (b) a three-dimensional space by using the
preposition ‘in’ (also ‘into, out of, inside, indoors, through, etc’) as volume
making reference to length, width and height, which suggests the actual
three-dimensional object which in reality it is, as in ‘in the cottage’ or ‘in the
bar’.
[Link]. The notions of position, direction and distance.
So far, once we have examined the very origin of the expression of spatial
reference, and set out the dimensional orientation of the chief prepositions
of place (at, on, in ) regaring mere position, line/surface, and area/volume,
we are ready for analysing position, direction and distance individually.
But before, it is worth mentioning that the notions of position and direction,
that is, directional movement and static position share a cause -and-effect
relation which applies equally to positive or negative prepositions. Thus,
‘Jack ran to the corner vs. from the corner’, ‘Leave the book on the top
shelf vs. Leave it off the table’, or ‘She walked into vs. out of the office’. And
now, let us examine the main issue of this study.
4. THE EXPRESSION OF POSITION.
The expression of position (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990), traditionally named
‘place’ is main ly realized by prepositions, simple (i.e. at, on, in, onto, into,
inside, etc ) and complex (i.e. all around, apart from, as far as, all through,
all over, etc ) and prepositional phrases (i.e. on top of, next to, out of, etc )
but also by other grammatical types, such as adverbs (towards, outdoors,
indoors), adverbial phrases (conjuncts: as far as I know), noun phrases (in
the house), or even idioms (over and over again ), as stated before.
The expression of position is usually placed in final position (i.e. ‘She came
to my room last night) but normally before the expression of time. In this
section we shall provide a general overview on this notion, as we shall
review: (1) the notion of simple position and its main prepositions: at, in, on,
(2) the notion of relative position, (3) the relationship between position and
direction, and (4) the expression of place by other means rather than
prepositions.
4.1. The notion of simple position.
The notion of simple position is brought about by the main prepositions
whic h establish the spatial dimensions, that is, ‘at’, ‘in’ and ‘on’ since
position and dimension-types 0, 1/2 and 2/3 are related. The notion of
simple position, called ‘absolute’ by Quirk (1990), refers to static location,
as in ‘Mike was at the door/on the floor/in the water’, where places are
regarded as points on a route or as institutions to which one is attached
(i.e. at Lincoln’s street, at Harvard University ). A prepositional phrase of
‘position’ can accompany any verb, although the meaning is usually static,
as with the verbs ‘to be, stay, study, work’, etc.
So far, in general usage, we distinguish three main types of prepositions
regarding position or place, which are also named dimension-type
prepositions. Therefore, we find (1) at-type prepositions, (2) in-type
prepositions and (3) on-type prepositions.
4.1.1. At-type prepositions.
At–type prepositions are applied when we refer to a small area such as a
square, a street, a room, a field meaning ‘at this point’ rather than ‘inside’,
since it is usually compared to the preposition ‘to’, since ‘at’ expresses
position (i.e. She was at the doctor’s) and ‘to’ expresses movement (i.e.
She went to the doctor’s). It is related to dimension-type 0, for instance, we
can be ‘at a building’, which means that we are inside, in the grounds or
just outside vs. ‘in a building’ that means ‘inside’ only. Similarly, if someone
is ‘at the station’, he may be in the street outside, or in the ticket
office/waiting room/restaurant or on the platform. Moreover, if we are ‘at the
sea’, we are ‘near/beside the sea’, but note that ‘at sea’ means ‘on a ship’.
In general, we use ‘at’ (a) when we talk about a particular point (i.e. at the
bus stop, at the end of the street); (b) with a building when we are talking
about what normally happens there, and not the building itself (i.e. She
works at the bank=working everyday; I was at the cinema=watching a film;
We were at the pub=having a drink ); (c) with social activities refering to an
event (i.e. We met at a party, I saw him at the football match ); (d) in
specific expressions (i.e. at home, at school, at work, etc ); (e) with
addresses if we give the house number (i.e. They live at 65, Shirley Road);
and finally, (f) at a place on a journey (i.e. Does the train stop at London? )
4.1.2. In-type prepositions.
In -type prepositions (also into, inside, etc), as shown above, normally
indicate position as well as movement (i.e. Position: He was in the office vs.
Movement: He came in the office), and usually opposed to ‘on’ since they
refer to volume and surface respectively (i.e. in the table=inside vs. on the
table=on the surface). ‘In’ refers to places, such as a country, a town, a
village, a square, a street, a room, a forest, a wood, a field, a desert or any
place which has boundaries or is enclosed. If we are ‘in a building’, we are
‘inside’ it, and similarly, ‘in the water’ means actually inside the water.
‘In’ may be used with the verb ‘put’, either ‘in’ or ‘into’ (i.e. He put his hands
in/into his pockets). Also, ‘in’ may be an adverb (i.e. Come in! = enter; Get
in the car= into the car). Remember that the negative character of these
prepositions is shown by paraphrasing (i.e. off=not on; out of=not in, and so
on). It is worth noting that place prepositions often overlap semantically
with other types, such as time (i.e. in December), adverbial (He came in
time), and so on.
So far, we use ‘in’ (a) when we talk about an enclosed space that is
surrounded on all sides (i.e. There were forty people in the room; He got a
mouse in his hand ); (b) with buildings and areas surrounded by walls (i.e.
in a big house, in the park ); (c) with larger areas like cities, states,
countries, continents (i.e. in New York, in California, in Germany, in
Europe); (d) with words that describe the relative pos ition of something
(i.e. in the corner of the square, in the middle of the room, in the east of
Spain); (e) with common expressions (i.e. in hospital, in church), though
note that if we add the article ‘the’ (i.e. in the hospital) we are not talking
about that place about what normally happens there but something unusual
(i.e. visiting, delivering flowers, etc); and (f) with newspapers and
magazines (i.e. in the Daily Mail, in the New York Times).
4.1.3. On-type prepositions.
The third type, ‘on’ prepositions (also onto), is used for both position and
movement, as in ‘He was sitting on his chair’ or ‘The cat jumped on(to) the
roof’. As we may observe, ‘onto’ is used with people or animals when a
change of level is implied (i.e. We lifted her onto the table). ‘On’ can also be
an adverb, as in ‘Go on! or Come on!’ It is worth noting again that place
prepositions often overlap semantically with other types, such as time (i.e.
on my birthday), adverbial (depending on me), and so on.
In general, ‘on’ is used (a) when we talk about a horizontal or vertical
surface (i.e. on the car) in opposition to ‘in’ that indicates volume (i.e. in the
car); (b) with any kind of line (i.e. on the border, on the road to Paris, on the
coast, etc ); (c) with machines (i.e. on the radio, on TV, on the phone); (d)
with directions, specially with ‘right’ and ‘left’ (i.e. Turn on the right/left).
4.2. The notion of relative position.
Apart from simple or absolute position, certain prepositions may express
relative position of two objects or groups of objects, that is, indicate the
position of something in relation to the position of something else, often by
means of contrastive pairs, such as ‘above vs. below; in front of vs. behind;
beneath vs. underneath; on top of vs. above; by, with, beside; between vs.
among; around vs. about, and opposite’ . For instance, ‘He was standing by
his wife’ (=at the side of) or ‘I left the keys with my bag’ (=in the same place
as).
Thus, ‘above’ and ‘below’ are ‘over vs. under’ respectively, though the al
tter is said to mean ‘directly above’ and ‘directly below’. Note that ‘over’ and
‘above’ usually have the same meaning (i.e. higher than) and imply ‘not
touching the surface’ (i.e. Above/over the door there as a sign saying ‘Non-
Smoking’). With ‘on top of’ we combine the sense of ‘above’ with abutment
(=touching). However, ‘over’ can also mean ‘covering’, as in ‘She put a
scarf over her shoulders’.
Similarly, ‘in front of vs. behind’ are ‘before vs. after’, although the latter pair
implies relative precedence rather than physical position. Like ‘under’ are
the less common ‘beneath’ (somewhat formal) and ‘underneath’. Abutment
or contact is also normally implied with the prepositions ‘by, beside, and
with’ (i.e She left her bag by/beside/with her lipstick) whereas ‘close to’ and
‘near (to)’ generally exclude actual contact; these prepositions are unique in
admitting comparative inflection (i.e. closer to, nearer to the door).
With ‘between’, we positionally relate two objects or groups of objects,
whereas with ‘among’ (also amid(st), more formally) we are dealing with a
more general plurality, and we do not see things or people separately (i.e.
She left the red dress among her dirty clothes ). The opposite of ‘between’
and ‘among’ is to some extent expressed by ‘around’ (AmE) and ‘round’
(BrE), as in ‘There were some crocodiles around the river’ vs. There was a
crocodile among the bushes’.
4.3. Position and direction.
As stated before, the notions of position and direction, static and movable
respectively, have a cause-and-effect relation which applies equally to both
positive and negative prepositions (i.e. in [Link], to vs. from, and so on).
Therefore, where places are regarded as points of route or institutions to
one is attached, we use dimension-type 0 (i. e. at the traffic lights, at Oxford
University).
However, following Quirk (1990), the places which are thought of in terms
of residence, require the dimension-type 2/3, as in ‘She has never lived in
Paris or London’. Similarly, if the referent is considered as a surface,
dimension-type 1/2 is appropriate (i.e They were swimming on Lake
Victoria ) whereas if it is considered as necessarily enclosing, then
dimension-type 2/3 comes into play (i.e. They were swimming in Lake
Victoria ).
We may observe that the contrast between ‘on’ (surface, dimension-type
1/2) and ‘in’ (area, dimension-type 2/3) has various implications according
to the context, as the following examples show. Note ‘on the window’ (as a
glass surface) vs. ‘in the window’ (as a framed area); als o, ‘on the island ’
(as an uninhabited island) vs. ‘in the island’ (an institutional identity).
Moreover, in addition to the prepositions mentioned, against, about, and
around are commonly used as prepositions of simple position or
destination: ‘against’ in the sense ‘touching the side surface of’ (i.e. She’s
leaning against the wall); ‘about’ and ‘around’ in the sense of ‘in the vicinity
of’ (i.e. She’s been wandering about/around the place all day). Also, two
additional meanings of ‘on’ as a preposition of position are ‘attached to’ (i.e.
the lemons on the tree ) and ‘on top of’ (i.e. She sat on the wall for a while
).
It is worth mentioning that the use of ‘at, in, on’ is often idiomatic; thus ‘on
earth’ but ‘in the world’. The sentence ‘She is doing well at school’ is often
preferred in BrE while ‘She is doing well in school’ is general in AmE.
Similarly, ‘on land, at sea, and in the air’.
4.4. The expression of place by other means.
Apart from prepositions, we have seen in previous sections how to express
‘spatial reference’ by other means. In fact, we shall review some of them in
this section, such as by means of:
(1) adverbs (i.e. Madonna is here ; the appartmet above, and so on ) and
adverbial phrases (i.e. As adjunct: On the shelf would be the best place;
disjunct: From my point of view, it would be placed on the shelf; or conjunct:
As far as I know ).
(2) linking as complement to other closed categories, such as verbs (i.e. I
put it in the box), prepositional verbs (verb + preposition), as in come from,
travel to, listen to, and so on.
(3) noun phrases (i.e. in the street, after two hours), where prepositional
phrases are mainly either of place (i.e. at home ), direction (i.e. to school)
or distance (i.e. away from me).
(4) we also find place conjuncts (Quirk, 1973), which denote static position
and also direction, movement, and passage under the general term
‘direction’. Place adjuncts are mainly realized by means of prepositional
phrases (i.e. in the park, out of my house, etc ) since these roles can be
clearly and convenie ntly specified through the respective prepositional
meaning (i.e. in-out, from-to, up -down, through, onto, etc ) although
sometimes we need noun phrases to amplify meaning (i.e. a very long way,
several miles away ).
(5) And finally, by means of idiomatic expressions, where prepositions are
used but not with their literal meaning, as in ‘What about…?, it’s up to you,
it’s over, what are you up to?, time is up, he’s well off, I came across an old
book, over and over again, and she’s by herself’.
5. THE EXPRESSION OF DIRECTION.
In this section we shall provide a general overview on the notion of
direction, as we shall review: (1) the notion of direction in relation to
position; (2) its main types and prepositions, where we examine the
expression of direction, passage and relative destination, (3) the notion of
resultative meaning, (4) the placing of direction at sentence level, and (5)
the expression of direction by other means rather than prepositions.
5.1. The notion of direction in relation to position.
According to Greenbaum & Quirk (1990), the notion of direction
(Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990), traditionally named ‘movement’ (Eastwood,
1999) is mainly realized by almost all those prepositions regarding position
since the notions of directional movement and static position have a cause-
and-effect relation, from where something is (position) to where it is going
(destination). This applies equally to positive and negative prepositions (i.e.
to vs. from, inside vs. outside, up vs. down, etc ). Thus, observe the
example: ‘Jane ran to the front door and then stood at the front door’ in
which the former verb is one of movement whereas the latter, is of static
position.
Directional prepositions may be simple (i.e. in, into, above, down, up, etc )
and complex (i.e. all along, around, all through, right across, etc ), and the
expression of direction is not only carried out by prepositions or
prepositional phrases (i.e. above, under, out of, up in the hill, etc), but also
by other grammatical types, such as adverbs both for position and direction
(i.e. away, back, below, elsewhere, near, here, over, past, through, under,
up, within), and adverbs which denote direction only (i.e. aside, backwards,
forwards, sideways, upwards, etc.), adverbial phrases (i.e. from my
window), noun phrases (i.e. ten kilometres), or even idioms (i.e. Here we
go, here you are, there you are, over here over there ).
Directional expressions are used only with verbs of motion or with other
dynamic verbs that allow a directional meaning, as in ‘He jumped over the
fence’ or ‘Michael was whispering into the microphone ’. However, some
directional adverbial phrases are also used with the verb ‘to be’, but with a
resultative meaning, indicating the state of having reached the destination
(i.e. He dived in the water). Note that in many cases, especially in colloquial
English, ‘on’ and ‘in’ may be used for both position and destination, as in
‘He fell on the floor’, ‘He is wandering around all day’.
5.2. Main types of directional prepositions.
The notion of direction is directly brought about by the main types of
directional prepositions which establish the spatial movements (i.e. by,
over, under, across, through, past, up, down, along, around, beyond). Here,
dimension-type prepositions 0, 1/2 and 2/3 are related since they may
accompany any verb, static (i.e. to be, stay, study, work’, etc ) or movement
verbs (i.e. come, go, jump, fell, wander, etc ). Note that some of these
prepositions, such as ‘over’, ‘around’ and
‘through’ have a pervasive meaning, especially when preceded by ‘all’ and
‘right’ (i.e. Crowds were cheering (all) along the route or There were police
(right) round the house).
So far, direction is expressed by a group of prepositions which convey the
meaning of movement with reference to different types of ‘motion’. In
general usage, we distinguish several types of directional prepositions
regarding movement or destination with respect to (1) direction, (2)
passage, and (3) relative destination.
5.2.1. Direction.
Direction, together with the notion of passage, is frequently related to
conceptual axes, which have to do with a real or fancied point from which
spatial relations are often expressed by orientation to the speaker (i.e. up,
down, along, across, past, from…to, towards, etc ). In fact, the preposition
‘towards’ indicate this category on its own, meaning ‘in the direction of’. For
instance, ‘up the hill’ depends on where the speaker is situated since it
implies ‘up somewhere further down from where I am speaking’ or ‘further
up from the place I am speaking about’.
In other words, direction implies an orientation point from the place the
speaker is situated. Note that difference between ‘(coming) up the road’
and ‘(going) down the road ’ may have more to do with personal orientation
rather than with relative elevation. Just as verbs like ‘come’ and ‘go’ may
strongly imply personal orientation, so others are congruent with
prepositional meaning, even to the extent of enabling the preposition to be
omitted, as in ‘climb (up), jump (over), flee (from), pass (by)’, and so on.
Then, these orientation points indicating direction shall be set out in an
imaginary axis or directional line, with a vertical and a horizontal axis. On
the horizontal axis, we would find those prepositions which indicate, on the
one hand, the notion of ‘from one end towards the other’, such as ‘from …
to, along, past, towards, etc’ , as in ‘His car is past the post office’; and on
the other hand, crossing the horizontal line, those prepositions which mean
‘from one side to another’, such as ‘across, around, through, etc’ , as in
‘The dwarfs went across the moors ’. Note that ‘around’ implies a
directional path in an angle or curve, such as a corner or a centre, as in
‘The chemist’s is just round the corner ’.
Secondly, on the vertical axis, we would find the notion of ‘vertical
direction’, and therefore, prepositions indicating a relative elevation,
increasing or decreasing, like ‘up and down’, as in
‘There is someone walking up and down the road’. However, note that ‘up’
and ‘down’ are also used idiomatically in reference to a horizontal axis, as
in ‘Anxiously, she walked up and down the platform’ . Here, ‘up’ and ‘down’
also express the notion of ‘along’, and need not have any vertical
implications.
5.2.2. Passage.
As stated above, the notion of passage, together with that of direction, is
frequently related to conceptual axes, which have to do with a real or
fancied point from which spatial relations are often expressed by orientation
to the speaker (i.e. on, in, along, across, through, etc ). The sense of
‘passage’ is the primary locative meaning attached to prepositions of
dimension-type 0 (in, on ), dimension-type 1/2 (across) and dimension type
2/3 (through, past, by).
The notion of passage combines prepositions of position and motion, for
instance, ‘on the grass’ (position) vs. ‘across the grass’ (motion), but
disregards prepositions of destination (i.e. He was moving behind the door
or She loves walking through woods in spring). Other prepositions
commonly used for passage are ‘by, over, under, across, and past’. It is
worth noting the parallel between positional ‘on’ and ‘in’ on the one hand
and ‘across’ and ‘through’ on the other.
However, spatial relations regarding passage have more to do with motion
at a horizontal level, depending on where the speaker is situated since it
implies ‘somewhere from where I am speaking’ or ‘from the place I am
speaking about’. For instance, the pair ‘on the grass vs. across the grass’
treat the grass as a surface, and therefore suggest short grass. On the othe
r hand, the other pair ‘in the grass vs. through the grass’ suggest that the
grass has height as well as length and breadth, that is, that by treating the
grass as a volume, we understand that it is long.
5.2.3. Relative destination.
As well as relative posit ion (Quirk, 1973), the following prepositions: ‘by,
over, under, etc’ . except for ‘above’ and ‘below’, can express relative
destination since most prepositions of relative position can also be used of
relative direction and destination; for example, ‘The fox scampered under a
bush and disappeared ’. Here, ‘under’ has a distinct use from that denoting
passage, as in ‘He walked under the bridge’.
5.3. The notion of resultative meaning.
As stated before, directional expressions are used only with verbs of
motion or with other dynamic verbs that allow a directional meaning of
‘motion’ or ‘direction’, as in ‘He jumped over the fence’ or ‘Michael was
whispering into the microphone ’. However, some directional adverbial
phrases are also used with the verb ‘to be’, but with a resultative meaning,
indicating the state of having reached the destination (i.e. He dived in the
water ). Note that in many cases, especially in colloquial English, ‘on’ and
‘in’ may be used for both position and destination, as in ‘He fell on the
floor’, ‘He is wandering around all day’.
5.4. The placing of direction at sentence level.
Regarding the placing of directional expressions at sentence level, they are
normally placed in final position (i.e. ‘I’ll meet you downstairs, we are
moving all the furniture into our new house next week) and normally, before
the expression of time. Moreover, directional expressions usually accord
with the interpretation of the verb. For instance, the verb ‘come’ concerns
‘arrival’, and therefore the destination (to Edinburgh) is normally mentioned
before the point of departure (from Rome ), whereas ‘go’ concerns
departure before the ‘arrival’, which would be placed after it.
When position and directional prepositional phrases co-occur in the
sentence, position normally follow directional expressions in final position.
For instance, ‘The children are running around (direction) upstairs
(position)’. Moreover, position can be moved to initial position to avoid
giving it end focus: ‘Upstairs the children are running around ’. However,
when directional expressions are juxtaposed in the sentence, their order
depends on the verb meaning described above. For instance, ‘They drove
down the road to the city centre’.
Initial position is more unusual, but happens in certain situa tions. Thus,
similarly with actions, the earlier event would be placed in intial position, as
in ‘And then from Venice the party proceeded to Rome’. Yet, some
directional expressions are put initially to convey a dramatic impact, and
normally co-occur with a verb in the simple present (i.e. Away she goes) or
simple past (i.e. On they marched ). If the subject is not a pronoun but a
noun, subject-verb inversion is normal in initial position (i.e. Away goes the
bride).
Moreover, directional expressions are put in initial position virtually only in
literary English and in children’s literature. Just a few exceptions occur in
informal speech, mainly with ‘go, come, and get’ in either the imperative
with the retained subject ‘you’ in the simple present. For instance, ‘In the
bath you go; over the fence you jump; under the bridge you get; round you
go; Here he comes, Here I/we go’, and so on.
5.5. The expression of direction by other means.
Apart from prepositions, we have seen in previous sections how to express
‘spatial reference’ by other means. In fact, we shall review how to express
‘direction’ in this section, by means of:
(1) adverbs and adverbial phrases. In fact, place adjuncts denote direction,
movement, and passage under the general term ‘direction’. Most place
adjuncts are prepositional phrases (i.e. past the sentry), but we also find
adverbs, common for position and direction (i.e. above, along, around,
away, back, down, here, in, near, off, out, over, past, and so on ), as in
Madonna is here ; the appartmet above , and so on ); and a few adverbs
denoting direction only (i.e. aside, backwards, downwards, forwards,
inwards, left, outwards, right, sideways, upwards). Regarding adverbial
phrases, we find adjuncts: ‘On the shelf would be the best place’; disjuncts:
‘From my point of view, it would be placed on the shelf’; or conjuncts: As far
as I know).
(2) the sequence verb + preposition, where the directional prepositions
functions as a complement to the verb (i.e. I lift it up/He comes from
Ireland/She goes to school). Note that, as seen previously, just as verbs
like ‘come’ and ‘go’ imply different orientation depending on the preposition
following (i.e. come up, come down), we find certain verbs where the
preposition is likely to be omitted, as in ‘climb (up), jump (over), flee (from),
pass (by)’ and so on.
(3) noun phrases (i.e. ten yards, eight kilometres), where prepositional
phrases are mainly either of direction (i.e. to school), passage (i.e. past the
church ), or distance (i.e. away from me).
(4) And finally, by means of idiomatic expressions, where prepositions are
used but not with their literal meaning, as in ‘Here you are’ meaning ‘This is
for you’; ‘Here we are’ meaning someone has arrived at the expected
place; ‘There you are ’ meaning that supports or proves what someone has
said; ‘Here we go ’ meaning that someone is just about to start moving, and
so on.
6. THE EXPRESSION OF DISTANCE.
In this section, we shall approach the notion of distance by examining (a)
the notion of distance, (b) the main type of prepos itions, and (c) the
expression of distance by other means.
6.1. The notion of distance.
The notion of distance differs from the notions of position and direction in
that it answers to the question ‘How far…?’ instead of Where? The
expression of distance then is brought about by the
notion of ‘measure’ since we shall answer in terms of ‘amount of’ yards,
miles, kilometres, inches, centimetres and also by other grammatical
expressions, such as ‘a long way away’ or ‘after two kilometres’.
6.2. Main type of prepositions.
The notion of distance also differ from both position and direction in
generally being realized by just a few prepositions (i.e. away from, outside,
next to, near, from) which correspond to dimensional types 1 /2 and 2/3.
They generally refer to the notion of ‘orientation’, as the following
prepositions show: ‘beyond, over, past, away from, and so on’.
As stated before, most prepositions indicating direction can be used in a
static sense of orientation (i.e. up, down, along, across). This brings in a
third factor apart from the two things being spatially related, that is, ‘a point
of orientation’, ‘at which in reality or imagination’, ‘the speaker is standing’.
This means that three points of reference are established, first, the one fro
m which the speaker is talking, second, the point at which we make
reference in the distance, and the third element refers to the personal
measure the speaker makes of the distance between the two points (i.e. I
think the post office is two yards away=He is not sure, it may be two yards
and a half).
Thus, we may say ‘He lives across the river’ (=from here) or ‘The village
past the next bus -stop’ (=from where we are now). Moreover, the
prepositions ‘up, down, along, across, and around’ are used orientationa lly
with reference to an axis and subjected to paraphrasing, for instance, ‘The
shop down the road’ (=towards the bottom end of the street); ‘His office is
up the stairs’ (=towards the top of the flat); ‘ There is a restaurant across
the road’ (=on the other side of the road); and finally,
‘He lives round the corner’ (=just on the other street).
6.3. The expression of distance by other means.
The expression of distance may be answered not only by prepositions or
prepositional phrases (i.e. along the stree t) but also by other means, such
as:
(1) adverbs and adverbial phrases (i.e. away; extremely far away), in which
case the notion of distance can share realizations with position (i.e. near, in
the corner of, etc ) and direction (i.e. three kilometres from here).
(2) the sequence verb + preposition, where the directional prepositions
functions as a complement to the verb (i.e. North Europe is far from here).
(3) noun phrases (i.e. ten yards, eight kilometres, several miles), where
prepositional phrases are mainly either of direction (i.e. to school), passage
(i.e. past the church ), or distance (i.e. away from me ). Note that
prepositional phrases coincide with noun phrases (i.e. two miles away).
7. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.
The various aspects of the expression of spatial reference, that is, position,
direction and distance dealt with in this study is relevant to the learning of
the vocabulary of a foreign language since differences between the
vocabulary of the learner’s native language (L1) and that of the foreign
language (L2) may lead to several problems, such as the incorrect use of
place adjuncts expressions, especially because of the syntactic,
morphological, and semantic processes implied in these categories.
This study has looked at the expression of place prepositions within lexical
semantics, morphology and syntax in order to establish a relative similarity
between the two languages that Spanish- speaking students would find it
useful for learning English if these connections were brought to their
attention, especially when different categories may overlap (position and
direction prepositions: in).
According to Thomson & Martinet (1986), a European student may find
especially troublesome the use of prepositions when communicating in
English since, first, he has to know whether in any construction a
preposition is required or not (i.e. He helped the old lady to carry the bags,
and NOT: He helped to the old lady to carry the bags) and, second, which
preposition to use when one is required (i.e. The plane was flying
above/on/over the field ).
This choice becomes problematic for our Spanish students when they try to
find a certain construction in his own language which requires a preposition
whereas a similar one in English does not. For instance, the most common
mistake for Spanish students, both at ESO and Bachillerato level, is to
express purpose as in Spanish, that is, preposition + infinitive (i.e. para
comer = for eat) whereas in English it is expressed by the infinitive only (i.e.
to eat).
It has been suggested that a methodology grounded in part in the
application of explicit linguistic knowledge enhances the second language
learning process. In the Spanish curriculum (B.O.E.
2002), the expression of place by means of prepositions is envisaged from
earlier stages of ESO in terms of simple descriptions of places, such as
describing the items in a bedroom, up to higher stages of Bachillerato,
towards more complex descriptions of places, asking for directions,
describing a room, a city, people and things.
The expression of spatial reference implying the use of the discussed
prepositions has been considered an important element of language
teaching because of its high-frequency in speech. We must not forget that
the expression of place adjuncts is mainly drawn from open class
categories, such as prepositions, and closed class categories, such as
adverbs, adjectives, and nouns.
Hence, the importance of how to handle these expressions cannot be
understated since you cannot communicate without it. Current communic
ative methods foster the ‘teaching’ of this kind of specific linguistic
information to help students recognize new L2 words. Learners cannot do it
all on their own. Language learners, even 2nd year Bachillerato students,
do not automatically recognize similiarities which seem obvious to
teachers; learners need to have these associations brought to their
attention.
So far, we have attempted in this discussion to provide a broad account of
the expression of spatial reference in order to set it up within the linguistic
theory, going through the localization of place adjuncts in syntactic
structures, and finally, once correctly framed, a brief presentation of the
main prepositions under study. We hope students are able to understand
the relevance of handling correctly the expression of place adjuncts in
everyday life communication.
8. CONCLUSION
Although the questions Where are you going tonight? may appear simple
and straightforward, they imply a broad description of the place you are
going to. The appropriate answer suitable for students and teachers, may
be so simple if we are dealing with ESO students, using simple
grammatical structures and basic vocabulary, or so complex if we are
dealing with Bachillerato students, who must be able to describe things
within a spatial frame using the appropriate prepositions according to their
dimensional characteristics.
So far, in this study we have attempted to take a fairly broad view of the
expression of place since we are also assuming that there is an intrinsic
connexion between its learning and successful communication. Yet, we
have provided a descriptive account of Unit 17 dealing with Spatial
reference, whose main aim was to introduce the student to the different
ways of expressing position, direction and distance in English.
In doing so, the study provided a broad account the notion of spatial
reference, starting by a theoretical framework in order to get some key
terminology on the issue, and further developed within a grammar linguistic
theory, described in morphological, syntactic and semantic terms. Once
presented, we discussed how prepositions, adverbs and other syntactic
constructions also reflected this notion.
In fact, lexical items and vocabulary, and therefore, the expression of place
prepositions, is currently considered to be a central element in
communicative competence and in the acquisition of a second language
since students must be able to use these prepositions in their everyday life
in many different situations. As stated before, the teaching of place
expressions comprises four major components in our educational
curriculum: phonology, grammar, lexicon, and semantics, out of which we
get five major levels: phonological, morphological and syntactic, lexical,
and semantic.
In fact, for our students to express spatial reference properly, they must
have a good knowledge at all those five levels. First, on phonology which
describes the sound level. Secondly, since the two
most basic units of grammar are the word and the sentence, they must
have good grammatical knowledge, which involves the morphological level
(i.e. simple and complex prepositions) and the syntactic level (i.e. where
prepositions of place are placed at sentence level).
Third, the lexicon, or lexical level, lists vocabulary items, that is, different
prepositions (direction, position, distance), and other expressions to denote
place, specifying how they are pronounced, how they behave
grammatically, and what they mean. Finally, another dimension between
the study of linguistic form and the study of meaning is semantics, or the
semantic level, in which students must be able to distinguish the
overlapping of semantic fields within the same preposition (in, for place and
time), and so on.
Therefore, it is a fact that students must be able to handle the four levels in
communicative competence in order to be effectively and highly
communicative in the classroom and in real life situations. The expression
of spatial reference proves highly frequent in our everyday speech, and
consequently, we must encourage our students to have a good managing
of it.
9. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
– Aarts, F., and J. Aarts. 1988. English Syntactic Structures. Functions &
Categories in Sentence Analysis. Prentice Hall Europe.
– B.O.E. RD Nº 112/2002, de 13 de septiembre por el que se establece el
currículo de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria/Bachillerato en la
Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia.
– Bolton, D. And N. Goodey. 1997. Grammar Practice in Context.
Richmond Publishing.
– Council of Europe (1998) Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching,
Assessment. A Common European Framework of reference.
– Downing, A. and P. Locke. 2002. A University Course in English
Grammar. London: Routledge.
– Eastwood, J. 1999. Oxford Practice in Grammar. Oxford University Press.
– Greenbaum, S. and R. Quirk. 1990. A Student’s Grammar of the English
Language. Longman Group UK Limited.
– Greenbaum, S. 2000. The Oxford Reference Grammar. Edited by
Edmund Weiner. Oxford University Press.
– Hymes, D. 1972. On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride and J.
Holmes (eds.), Sociolinguistics, pp. 269-93. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
– Huddleston, R. 1988. English Grammar, An Outline. Cambridge
University Press.
– Huddleston, R. and G.K. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of th e
English Language. Cambridge University Press.
– Nelson, G. 2001. English: An Essential Grammar. London. Routledge.
– Quirk, R & S. Greenbaum. 1973. A University Grammar of English.
Longman.
– Sánchez Benedito, F. 1975. Gramática Inglesa. Editorial Alhambra.
– Thomson, A.J. and A.V. Martinet. 1986. A Practical English Grammar.
Oxford University Press.
10. APPENDIX.
Appendix 1. Spatial dimensions of prepositions (Greenbaum & Quirk,
1990).
Spatial Positi Negative
Dimensions ve

Destination Positi Destinati Position