8.1 Definitions

Prepositions are words that languages use to relate one thing to another. In the English sentence Jill's cat is inside the house, for example, the preposition inside relates the noun phrase Jill's cat to the noun phrase the house, and indicates that the second contains the first. Prepositions are often followed by nouns or noun phrases, as in this example, but they can also be used with pronouns or by themselves. Thus, it is also possible in English to say Jill's cat is inside it, substituting the personal pronoun it for the noun phrase the house, or simply Jill's cat is inside, with the preposition used by itself. When a preposition is used with a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun, it is said to govern them. A preposition that is used by itself is said to function as an adverb, or adverbially; we will consider adverbs and adverbial function in more detail later in this lesson.

Prepositions are among the most idiosyncratic words of any language. Often it is impossible to translate the prepositions of one language exactly into those of another. The French preposition à, for example, must be translated with the English prepositions to, at, into, on, by, for, from, or with, depending on how it is used; conversely, the single English preposition by corresponds to the French prepositions par, à, sur, or en, also depending on the way it is used. In fact, it is rare to find a preposition in one language that corresponds exactly to one and only one preposition in another language.