Prepositional phrase
A prepositional phrase is, in languages with prepositions, a phrase that begins with a preposition. For example:
- To the store1
- From the house
- Under the fence
In languages with postpositions, the morpheme that corresponds to an English preposition occurs at the end of the phrase. (They could therefore be referred to as "postpositional phrases".) For example, Basque, Japanese, and Tamil would have literal translations of the above examples akin to:
- The store to
- The house from
- The fence under
(Where we treat "The X" as a single word in these examples.)
Prepositional phrases can fulfill several different grammatical roles, including adjective; adverb; and indirect object of a verb. For example:
- The cat from China was ill. (Adjective)
- She ran under him. (Adverbial use of a prepositional phrase)2
- He gave money to the cause. (Indirect object)
See also noun phrase, verb phrase, linguistics, Transformational-Generative Grammar; structural linguistics, syntax, semantics.
1. Prepositional "to" as used here is semantically and syntactically different from "to" used as a verbal auxiliary in English infinitival constructions (see also infinitive). 2. This is not to be confused with compound verbs such as "to put up with" and "to run over" that function as single grammatical units. (cf. "Over him, she ran" vs. "Him, she ran over" and "Under him, she ran." vs. "Him, she ran under".)