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U17, Spatial prepositions - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Destination
        
        Accompanies a Vb of dynamic ‘motional’ meaning (go, move, fly, walk, swim etc.). Although in colloquial English, IN & ON are used for both position & destination, Most Vbs of motion require onto & into for destinational meaning:
        Don’t run in the school [when you are inside the building]
        Don’t run into the school [that is, from outside it]
        
        TO: He went to the office
        
        ONTO: He fell onto the floor
        
        INTO: He walked into the park
        
        TO & TOWARDS
        
        TO: completive movement in the direction of a place (completion)
        TOWARDS: movement without the idea of completion (in the direction of)
        
        The Smiths moved to Melbourne [suggest actual arrival]
        
        They drove towards Melbourne [suggest they are still on their way]
        
        complete / incomplete
        
        (movement with respect to an intended location)
      - Position
        
        (static location)
        
        A PP of position can accompany most verbs, although it is Associated with Vbs of stative meaning, (be, stand, live, etc.) Also, with the Vb arrive (She arrived/On her arrival in London/at the bus stop)
        
        AT: He stood at the door
        
        ON: The note is on the wall
        
        IN: The keys are in my pocket
        
        IN & ON
        
        The rain made patterns on the window [glass surface]
        
        The players were practicing on the field [surface for sports]
        
        She was sitting on the grass [surface: the grass is short]
        
        A face appeared in the window/mirror [Framed area]
        
        Cows were grazing in the field [enclosed area of land]
        
        She was sitting in the grass [volume: the grass is long]
        
        In (area)
        On (surface)
        
        IN & AT
        
        IN for sizable territories (continents, countries, cities):
        
        In Asia / In China / In Beijing
        
        She's at / in Oxford.(she's a student at Oxford University / she's staying in the city of Oxford)
        
        For towns/villages either, according to the POV:
        
        We will met her at Oxford street (As a point on a map)
        
        I saw her while I was shopping in Oxford street (open area)
        
        He works in London, but lives in the country (a big area, city)
        
        Our plane refueled at London on its way from LA to Moscow. (a point on the map)
        
        1 more item...
        
        In (area)
        At (point)
  - - - 0) POINT
        
        POINT
        
        At the bus stop.
        
        At the South Pole.
        
        At the end of the street.
        
        A dimensionless location, a mere point in relation to the position of an element (no length/width/heigth)
    - - 1&2) LINE or SURFACE
        
        LINE
        
        The city is situated on the River Rhin.
        
        The city is situated on the boundary.
        
        The city is situated on the coast
        
        SURFACE
        
        A notice was pasted on the wall.
        
        A notice was pasted on the ceiling.
        
        A notice was pasted on my back.
        
        Line (reference to length) Surface/Area (two dimensional area: length & width)
    - - 2&3) AREA or VOLUME
        
        AREA
        
        In the world
        
        In the village
        
        VOLUME
        
        In a box
        
        In a bathroom
        
        In a cathedral
        
        Volume (Reference to length, width & height)
  - - - There is also a cause-effect relation btw negative D & P:
        
        I drove away from home > I am away from home
        
        The book fell off the shelf > The book is off the shelf
  - - - OVER, ABOVE, ON TOP OF
        
        UNDER, BELOW, BENEATH/ UNDERNEATH
        
        The antonyms ~ are converse opposites (<>):
        The picture is above the shelf = The shelf is below the picture
        The bus is in front of the car = The car is behind the bus.
        
        OVER & UNDER indicate spatial proximity (close or touching)
        
        ABOVE & BELOW indicate “on a higher/lower level than”
        
        UNDERNEATH & BENEATH are less common (formal) substitutes for UNDER
        
        They can also express Relative Destination (movement):
        
        He threw a blanket over her.
        
        I dashed behind the bush
        
        We all went underneath the trees.
        
        Passage
        
        OVER, ABOVE, ON TOP
        
        UNDER, BELOW UNDERNEATH/BENEATH
        
        IN FRONT OF
        
        BEHIND
        
        1 more item...
        
        movement towards & then away from a place
        (movement to a place on the way to somewhere else)
        
        ACROSS (1/2): On the grass ≈ across the grass
        
        THROUGH (2/3): In the grass ≈ through the grass.
        
        PAST (= by): We drove by / past the Town Hall
        
        1 more item...
    - - IN FRONT OF, BEFORE
        
        BEHIND, AFTER
  - - - BY & BESIDE (at the side of): He was standing by / beside the door
        
        WITH (in the same place as): I left the keys with my wallet
        
        BESIDE & BESIDES (locative & non-locative):
        A young man stood beside Mary /
        Besides Mary, there were other students (apart from) /
        She is kind. Besides, she is good-looking (in addition).
        
        NEAR (TO) & CLOSE TO (the only Pps which inflect for comparison):
        She was sitting nearer to / nearest to / next to me
        She was sitting closer to / closest to me
        
        OPPOSITE means “facing” & has an optional TO:
        Her house is opposite to mine
    - - BETWEEN & AMONG (B relates the position of 2 exclusive objects. A relates to more than 2 or a set of non-exclusive objects):
        The house stands between two farms
        The house stands among farms
        
        AMID & AMIDST (formal: in the midst/middle of, surrounded by). An indefinite number of entities):
        The deserted house stood amid snow-covered trees.
    - - (A)ROUND (surrounding position):
        We were sitting (a)round the campfire
        
        AROUND & ABOUT (in the area of/in various positions):
        There are very few taxis about / around here
        The guests were standing about / around the room
- - - - Also, degree modification with "very much" tends to occur with metaphorical rather than literal meanings of prepositions: "You are very much against the idea"
  - - - The 2nd unit, known as the Prepositional Complement, is a Noun, NP (A man in the front row), or an equivalent structure: pronouns (This is a present for him), nominalized Adjectives (He fought against the most intelligent), nominalized Adverbs (We observed him from here), & infinitives (non-finite clauses) (Andrew took it to read it)
        
        Often they also include words serving to show the semantic role or grammatical function in the clause of their NP complement: "He was arrested by the police"
      - Complement of the preposition (a NP)
    - - The second unit refers back (is linked) to the first, which may be a Vb (i.e. He is drinking out of a dirty glass), an Adj phrase (i.e. He is afraid of spiders), or a NP (i.e. The man in blue jeans is looking at you). In these cases (Adj & Vb), prepositional phrases will function as adverbials, that is, adjuncts (In a few minutes, we‟ll know the results/We‟ll know the results in a few minutes).
      - Another part of the sentence
  - - - The people on the bus were singing
        
        Prepositions are like adverbs but they differ most sharply from adverbs in their complementation and in the fact that many of them do also occur in other constructions. Many words can be used as either prepositions or adverbs. Compare: "He got off the bus at the corner" (Prep) vs. "He got off at the corner" (Adv). "Peter is behind us" (Prep) vs. "He‟s a long way behind" (Adv).
      - Acting as an Adj modifying a Noun
        Noun Complement?
        Relating an object to a location
    - - The people were singing on the bus (Adjunct)
        In retrospective, she did try to call the police (Disjunct)
        On the other hand, he made no attempt to stop her (Conjunct)
        
        Place adjuncts are mainly realized by means of PPs (i.e. in the park, out of my house, etc) since these roles can be clearly specified through the respective prepositional meaning (i.e. in-out, from-to, up-down, through, onto, etc )
        
        Most place adjuncts are PPs (i.e. in a small village, a long way from here, past the sentry, wherever he went, from the desk, etc) which evoke responses to a „where‟ question, such as to position (where?), direction (where?), source (where from?), and distance (how far?) with stative or dynamic verbs. For instance, position and distance use stative verbs (live, stay), whereas direction and source use dynamic verbs (go to, come from).
      - Relating an event/ action to a location
    - - They were looking at his paintings (Verb complement)
        I'm sorry for his parents (Adjective complement)
        
        Complements to prepositional Verbs, where the verb selects from a handful of short prepositions (i.e. ask for, consist of, depend on, hope for), where the constituent that follows the verb function as an complement/object of the prep. When complementing a Vb or Adj, it is placed after them. When complementing a sentence by means of an adverbial phrase, it is placed at the end
- - - - Here!, We are swimming in the river
      - = Prepositional phrase
    - - London, two kilometres away
    - - The keys aren't where I kept them
    - - The people on the bus were angry
  - - - Which combinations of words constitute grammatical strings and which do not (NOT: She goes at school in bike BUT She goes to school by bike).
    - - 1) the expression of spatial reference regarding the choice between Prep phrases or Adverbial phrases (i.e. He works here vs. He drives in this bank), 2) lexical choices regarding different types of prepositions (on vs. above; opposite vs. in front of), & specific prepositions (i.e. upwards, onto, inside)
    - - Compound words (i.e. into, onto, etc)
    - - Meaning where syntactic and morphological levels do not tell the difference (He left the keys on the table = on the surface and not inside a drawer).
    - - Pronunciation of Prepositions (out, onto, forward, through, behind, etc.) helps to distinguish Preps from Advs since Preps, normally unstressed, are stressed when they are prepositional Advs (He 'stayed in the house vs. He stayed 'in)
  - - - Area
        
        inside, outside, in, out...
      - Lines of passage
        
        across, over, along...
      - Volume
        
        through, under, behind...
      - Points in space
        
        in, on, at...
      - Direction
        
        to, from, towards...
      - Movement, etc.
        
        through, past, across...
      - Surface
        
        on, onto, off...
- - - - UP & DOWN (contrast in terms of vertical direction):
        We walked up the hill and down the other side
        Can also be used idiomatically with horizontal reference:
        She went up / down the coast/the road (expressing along)
    - - ALONG (from one end towards the other / in parallel with):
        I took my dog for a walk along the river/street
        
        ACROSS (from one side to the other):
        Be careful when you walk across the street
    - - (A)ROUND: We run (a)round the corner
  - - - BEYOND (on the far side of) its primary meaning is one of orientation:
        I could see the town beyond the field [On the other side from me]
      - ACROSS, THROUGH, PAST, OVER (Pps of passage) combine the meaning of ‘beyond' with more specific info about dimension:
        They live across the fields. [that is, from me]
        
        We can specify the point of orientation (or viewpoint) by using a from-phrase:
        He lives up / down / along / across the road from me.
  - - - Out of context, resultative meaning is not always distinguishable from other static meanings. Its presence, however, is often signalled by certain adverbs (already, just, at last, (not) yet, etc):
        
        The horses have just/already jumped over the fence
        
        Resultative meaning is characteristically found with negative prepositions FROM, OUT OF, etc, or with prepositions of “passage”: ACROSS, THROUGH, PAST:
        
        At last we are out of the forest.
        
        When you're past the next obstacle, you can relax.
  - - - THROUGHOUT meaning “all through” is the only Pp whose primary meaning is “pervasive” (=all-inclusive):
        
        The epidemic has spread throughout the country
        
        OVER, THROUGH & the axis type PPs, especially when preceded by all, have pervasive meaning:
        
        He painted (all) over the walls (covered them).
        
        Chaos reigned (all) through the house.
        
        There were crowds (all) along the route.
        
        They put flowers (all) around the statue.
        
        WITH also has pervasive meaning in:
        
        The ground was covered with snow.
        
        The garden was buzzing with bees
- - - - Adverbs/Prepositions of place:
        
        They live a long way away.
        
        The valley lay two thousand feet below them.
        
        They flew two hundred miles (to the) West.
        
        If the reference is to movement, the question form is:
        
        How far did he run?
        But if the reference is to static location, it is:
        
        How far away do they live?
      - VERBS of motion:
        
        He ran several miles