Preposition

“ In the expression, "to take for granted," we have a participle attached to a verb by means of a preposition, as an object needful to complete it; and the next group shows two nouns, "talk and discourse," combined by the conjunction "and," so as to spare the repetition of the verb "to find," to which they both serve as "objects." ”

“ Johnson. Here are three simple sentences, which are made members of one compound sentence, by means of but and over which; while two of these members, clauses, or subdivisions, contain particular words connected by and.
OBS. 5.—In one respect, the preposition is the simplest of all the parts of speech: in our common schemes of grammar, it has neither classes nor modifications. Every connective word that governs an object after it, is called a preposition, because it does so; and in etymological parsing, to name the preposition as such, and define the name, is, perhaps, all that is necessary. ”

“ Because a preposition at the end of a sentence may in some instances be clumsy or unwieldy, this is no reason why a final preposition should always and under all circumstances be considered a grave error. ”

“ You may easily nonplus even a good grammarian by asking him suddenly, "What preposition should you use in such-and-such a context?" just as you may puzzle a man by asking him to spell a word which, if he wrote it without thinking about it, would present no difficulty to him. ”

“ When the relative is the object of the verb, or is preceded in English by a preposition, a redundant personal pronoun is added after the verb, with or without a combined preposition, but a preposition is never placed before the relative particle a itself. ”

“ We say a score of years, and a couple of years, but we omit the preposition after dozen, another word denoting number, and say a dozen years. After the collective noun crowd we express the preposition; as, [Pg 195] a crowd of boys; but if we say a great many in place of crowd, we omit the preposition, saying a great many boys. For analysis, however, the preposition should always be supplied.
3. Adverbs sometimes modify nouns.—This comes about often by abridging an adjective clause to an appositive phrase ”

“ A preposition governing a sentential noun, is, by Murray and others, considered a conjunction; and a preposition governing a noun understood, an adverb."—J. L. PARKHURST: in Sanborn's Gram., p. 123. "Example: 'He will, before he dies, sway the sceptre.' He dies is a sentential noun, third person, singular number; and is governed by before; before he dies, being equivalent in meaning to before his death."—Sanborn, Gram., p. ”

“ Attention is the stuff that memory is made of. 14. It is to you that I speak.
+Explanation+.—Here the preposition, which usually would stand last in the sentence, is found before the complement of the independent clause. In analysis restore the preposition to its usual place—It is you that I speak to. ”

“ One reason for excepting the article—that there would be an immense accumulation of titles under the unimportant words A, The, Le, Der, Uno, etc.—is not so strong in the case of prepositions; the other—that it is difficult to remember with what article a given title begins—hardly applies at all to prepositions. The preposition is full as likely to fasten itself in the {42} memory as the word that follows it. ”

“ It should be remarked that whereas when a thing is spoken of, some of these compound prepositions, as avune, alalan̈e, may be called prepositions, as 'above,' 'below,' in English; yet when a person is spoken of, the compound word cannot be taken for a preposition, but its composition from a preposition and a substantive is too conspicuous to be mistaken. ”

“ The strongest argument in favor of confining preposition-entry to fiction and the drama is that in other cases the word following the preposition will probably be a subject-word, so that one entry will do the work of two. ”

“ A transitive verb which, in the active voice, is followed by an object complement and a prepositional phrase, takes, in the passive, the principal word of the phrase for its subject, retaining the complement and the preposition to complete its meaning ”

“ A preposition is a word joined to a noun or its equivalent to make up a qualifying or an adverbial phrase, and to show the relation between its object and the word modified.
Objects, nouns and the following.
308. Besides nouns, prepositions may have as objects—
(1) Pronouns: "Upon them with the lance;" "With whom I traverse earth."
(2) Adjectives: "On high the winds lift up their voices."
(3) Adverbs: "If I live wholly from within;" ”

“ Such a prepositional phrase is often used as logical subject after the anticipative subject it; thus, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.”
Note.—In the common construction, “I cannot but think,” the word think is an infinitive with to omitted, used as object of the preposition but. There is an ellipsis in this construction which must be supplied for analysis, unless we dispose of the whole expression at once as an idiomatic verb-phrase. Supplying the ellipsis we have, “I cannot do anything but think.” ”

“ A preposition is so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased.
19. Anything is preposterous when it is contrary to nature, reason, or common sense. Literally, having that last which ought to be first; as, the “cart before the horse”.
20. To lay down beforehand in writing as a rule of action. “Prescribe not us our duties. ”

“ Prepositions.—Prepositions, as such, are wholly unsusceptible of inflection. Other parts of speech, in a state of inflection, may be used with a prepositional sense. This, however, is not an inflection of prepositions.
No word is ever made a preposition by the addition of a derivational [59] element. If it were not for this, the practical classification of the prepositions, in respect to their form, would coincide with that of the adverbs. As it is, there are only the prepositions of deflection, and the absolute prepositions. ”

“ Misused Prepositions. [132] —A writer, in choosing the proper preposition to express his meaning, must rely chiefly on his sense of idiom, that is, his knowledge of English usage, but he may find the following notes helpful. ”

“ It is, perhaps, worth while to observe that those prepositions, which in modern languages hold the place of the ancient cases, are, of all others, the most general, and abstract, and metaphysical; and of consequence, would probably be the last invented. Ask any man of common acuteness, What relation is expressed by the preposition above? ”

“ LESSON 96. CONSTRUCTION OF PREPOSITIONS. +To the Teacher+.—Most prepositions express relations so diverse, and so delicate in their shades of distinction that a definition of them based upon etymology would mislead. A happy and discriminating use of prepositions can be acquired only by an extended study of good authors. We do below all that we think it prudent or profitable to do with them. He should he a man of wide and careful reading who assumes to teach pupils that such prepositions, and such only, should be used with certain words. Nowhere in grammar is dogmatism more dangerous than here. ”