Re: Prepositions

Quoting Padraic Brown <agricola@...>:

> On Sun, 30 Sep 2001, Adam Walker wrote:
>
> > >Abaft, abeam, astarboard, aport (used on ships).
> >
> > abroad
>
> Wouldn't these be more adverbs? The first four I can see
> prepositional uses, but not so "abroad". If it is also
> a prep., then add ahorse, afoot, etc.
The notion of "preposition" is kinda a sticky one. "In",
the status of which few would question, is also used in
phrasal verbs like "I jumped in", and then there's the
famous "up" as in:

  (1) Jack and Jill ran up the hill
  (2) Jack and Jill ran up the bill
  (3) *Jack and Jill ran the hill up
  (4) Jack and Jill ran the bill up

Here, one kind of "up" is clearly a preposition ("up the hill"),
while the other is clearly not.  Some analyze these as basically
the same prepositions, but the verbs require them not to have
any kind of valence, and to be sisters of the NP "the bill".

==============================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...>

"If a man demands justice, not merely as an abstract concept,
but in setting up the life of a society, and if he holds, further,
that within that society (however defined) all men have equal rights,
then the odds are that his views, sooner rather than later, are going
to set something or someone on fire." Peter Green, in _From Alexander
to Actium_, on Spartan king Cleomenes III