Complex prepositions (was: ANADEWISM: Natlangs that do comparison with true verbs?)

On Monday, November 8, 2004, at 10:55 , Roger Mills wrote:

> Rene Uittenbogaard wrote:
[snip]

>> BTW, is there a general term for "prepositional constructs" like "with
>> respect to"? I usually refer to them as "compound prepositions", but
>> what is the official terminology?
>
> I'm not sure there is an official term; both of your proposals make sense.
Indeed - what body is there to make any such terminology "official"?

When I was taught grammar 50 years back in the UK, they were called
"prepositional phrases', that is phrases that functioned as prepositions.

However, "prepositional phrase" is now-a-days almost invariably used to
mean: a phrase consisting of a preposition & a noun phrase (We used to
call these things either "adjectival phrases" or "adverbial phrases",
depending upon their function).

IMO "compound preposition" is quite an acceptable term. However both Larry
Trask (A Dictionary of grammatical terms in Linguistics) and David Crystal
(A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics) call them "complex
prepositions". I guess that reflects the general terminology in current
linguistic circles.
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On Tuesday, November 9, 2004, at 12:18 , caeruleancentaur wrote:

[snip]
> The official term is complex preposition (David Crystal, "A
> Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, p. 275).
But as far as I know nobody has made David Crystal the _official_
authority. Certainly where he and Trask differ, I would always put more
weight on Trask's definition (as for example concerning 'obviative' and
'proximate' - in fact Crystal does not even define the latter term).*

But neither are "official" - and I am sure neither claimed to be. It is a
matter of usage which, as I have seen in my life-time, does change.

*Thus for example on the _obviative_ -
TRASK: One of a set of third-person pronominal forms occurring in certain
languages and used exclusively for the second or later third person entity
to be mentioned in a discourse, the first such entity being referred to by
one of a contrasting set of 8proximate* forms. Obviative forms are often
misleadingly called 'fourth-person' forms..."

CRYSTAL: A term used in linguistics to refer to a fourth-person
form........This form (of a PRONOUN, VERB, etc.) usually contrasts with
the third person...." [Crystal, as I have said, makes no mention of
'proximate']

Ray
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