English Prepositions Explained
This title has been replaced by:
English Prepositions Explained: Revised edition , Seth Lindstromberg (2010)
English Prepositions Explained: Revised edition , Seth Lindstromberg (2010)
Hardbound – Replaced by new edition
ISBN 9789027221711 (Eur)
ISBN 9781556195259 (USA)
Paperback – Replaced by new edition
ISBN 9789027221728 (Eur)
ISBN 9781556195266 (USA)
English Prepositions Explained has been written both for non-native and native speakers of English and is intended for: teachers of English; translators; materials writers; advanced students of English; frequent users of English generally.
English Prepositions Explained furnishes information about English prepositions that is available in no other book currently in print. EPE both complements and is complemented by The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations, which lists common collocations (including prepositional collocations) in a fashion that makes them readily locatable.
Like a grammar handbook, EPE describes how prepositions and directional adverbs are used. Its main work, however, consists in providing answers to the following questions: What meanings does each preposition have?; How are a preposition’s different meanings related?; Which meaning(s) underlie this or that usage?; Which usages are true idioms and which express systematic meaning?; What are the major semantic families of prepositions?; Where are the boundaries in meaning between the prepositions within each family?; When various prepositions are usable in the same context, what different meaning or nuance does each contribute and why?; What is the role of metaphor in the English system of prepositions?; What is a phrasal verb and to what extent do they reflect systematic meanings?
Explanations are liberally supported with iconic/pictorial illustration and examples of usage.
It is this explanatory, rather than merely descriptive, approach which makes EPE a unique resource for creative writing. Covering more than seventy, mostly spatial and temporal, prepositions, it presents a picture of remarkable systematicity.
Among EPE’s twenty-three chapters are: an overview of the grammar and semantics of prepositions (of place, path and time) and of directional adverbs; Nineteen chapters on families of prepositions; a chapter on phrasal verbs; a summary of key abstract notions expressed by prepositions.
EPE is fully indexed and includes a glossary of terms and an annotated bibliography.
English Prepositions Explained furnishes information about English prepositions that is available in no other book currently in print. EPE both complements and is complemented by The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations, which lists common collocations (including prepositional collocations) in a fashion that makes them readily locatable.
Like a grammar handbook, EPE describes how prepositions and directional adverbs are used. Its main work, however, consists in providing answers to the following questions: What meanings does each preposition have?; How are a preposition’s different meanings related?; Which meaning(s) underlie this or that usage?; Which usages are true idioms and which express systematic meaning?; What are the major semantic families of prepositions?; Where are the boundaries in meaning between the prepositions within each family?; When various prepositions are usable in the same context, what different meaning or nuance does each contribute and why?; What is the role of metaphor in the English system of prepositions?; What is a phrasal verb and to what extent do they reflect systematic meanings?
Explanations are liberally supported with iconic/pictorial illustration and examples of usage.
It is this explanatory, rather than merely descriptive, approach which makes EPE a unique resource for creative writing. Covering more than seventy, mostly spatial and temporal, prepositions, it presents a picture of remarkable systematicity.
Among EPE’s twenty-three chapters are: an overview of the grammar and semantics of prepositions (of place, path and time) and of directional adverbs; Nineteen chapters on families of prepositions; a chapter on phrasal verbs; a summary of key abstract notions expressed by prepositions.
EPE is fully indexed and includes a glossary of terms and an annotated bibliography.
[Not in series, 88] 1998. xii, 309 pp.
Publishing status: Obsolete
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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List of Symbols and Abbreviations | p. vi
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1. Introduction | p. 1
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2. Orientation | p. 9
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3. Toward(s), to, in/into, inward, outward, through, out (of), from (vs of), away (from) | p. 26
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4. On vs off; onto; on vs in; on top (of); on the inside/outside (of), etc; on vs back, forward, backward, ahead, against, toward, on vs out, off, from, away; off vs from; off & near; back vs backward | p. 52
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5. In vs on & out; in vs inside, within; in vs on, during | p. 70
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6. Beside, along, near, alongside, against | p. 82
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7. Between, among, amid, inter- | p. 90
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8. Across (from), opposite, cattycorner/kittycorner | p. 98
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9. In front (of), behind, in back of vs before, in the back/front of, next | p. 105
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10. Above, over, across, through, throughout, via, during | p. 111
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11. (A)round, about vs by/past, over, on | p. 132
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12. By vs near, close (to), next to, past, (a)round; near vs close (to), next to | p. 141
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13. Under, below, beneath, underneath | p. 152
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14. Back, backward(s) | p. 161
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15. At vs in, on, to, toward(s), by, with | p. 165
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16. Against vs into, on, at, until/till | p. 175
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17. Up vs down, off, out | p. 183
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18. Of vs to, off, about, from | p. 195
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19. With vs without, of, from/out of, against, for, within, together, apart | p. 208
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20. For vs to, of | p. 221
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21. More about To, vs with, for, against | p. 231
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22. Prepositions in phrasal verbs | p. 243
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23. Key abstract notions | p. 275
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Glossary and Index of Terms | p. 296
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Index of Prepositions and Features of Language | p. 300
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Index of Abstract Notions | p. 307
“Lindstromberg has explained English prepositions to me. This really is an interesting and well-written book and very useful [...].”
Chris Mares, Orono, USA, English Teaching Professional, 1999
“The book really does give unified, coherent explanations of the uses of prepositions, and shows that these uses are mostly less ‘quirky’ than is usually believed. [...] A unique book, and essential reading for teachers and advanced learners.”
Jonathan Marks, English Teaching Professional, Poland
“
English Prepositions Explained is a very honest and practical book which achieves what it sets out to do without any pretensions to solving all the problems in the field of prepositional usage in English. [...] For someone like myself who has taught ESL, reading this book is like having someone fit the pieces of a puzzle together before your eyes.”
Patrick J. Duffley,
Université Laval, Canada, in Word 52/1, 2001
“A very fine piece of work that is going to do us all a lot of good.”
Michael Swan
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Widoff, Andreas
2023. On the feasibility of general meanings in prepositional semantics. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 55:1 ► pp. 16 ff.
Pan, Molly Xie & Guangwei Hu
2022. Effectiveness of a CL-informed approach to English preposition acquisition by young Chinese learners. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 9:1 ► pp. 87 ff.
Kokorniak, Iwona
2021. An aspectual contour of phrasal verb constructions with English think
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Mori, Souma
2019. A Cognitive Analysis of the PrepositionOVER: Image-schema transformations and metaphorical extensions. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 64:3 ► pp. 444 ff.
Pasma, Tryntje
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Schmied, Josef J.
2019. Chapter 3.2. African corpora for standards in African academic English. In Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 88], ► pp. 356 ff.
Vandeloise, Claude
2017. The expression of proximity in French and in English. Corela :HS-23
Lu, Wei-Lun
2016. Polysemy and the Semantic-pragmatic Interface: The Case ofUpin a Context-based Model. Intercultural Pragmatics 13:4 ► pp. 563 ff.
Lu, Wei-lun
2022. A Conceptual Exploration of Polysemy: A Case Study of [V] – [UP] and [V] – [SHANG],
Rudanko, Juhani
2015. ‘Wheedled Me into Lending Him My Best Hunter’: Comparing the Emergence of the Transitive into -ing Construction in British and American English. In Perspectives on Complementation, ► pp. 128 ff.
Johansson Falck, Marlene
H.Verspoor, Marjolijn
2008. Cognitive Linguistics and its Applications to Second Language Teaching. In Encyclopedia of Language and Education, ► pp. 1843 ff.
Verspoor, Marjolijn H.
2014. Cognitive Linguistics and Its Applications to Second Language Teaching. In Language Awareness and Multilingualism, ► pp. 1 ff.
Verspoor, Marjolijn H.
2016. Cognitive Linguistics and Its Applications to Second Language Teaching. In Language Awareness and Multilingualism, ► pp. 1 ff.
Verspoor, Marjolijn H.
2017. Cognitive Linguistics and Its Applications to Second Language Teaching. In Language Awareness and Multilingualism, ► pp. 55 ff.
Low, Graham
2008. Metaphor and education. In The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought, ► pp. 212 ff.
Marque-Pucheu, Christiane
2008. La couleur des prépositions à et de. Langue française n° 157:1 ► pp. 74 ff.
Moreno, Ana Ibáñez
2007. A Semantic Analysis of Universal and Idiosyncratic Features of Induced Motion Verbs: From the Perspective of Language Typology. Journal of Universal Language 8:1 ► pp. 23 ff.
OTANI, NAOKI
2007. A COGNITIVE STUDY OF ANTONYMY. ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 24:2 ► pp. 445 ff.
Smet, Hendrik De
2007. For … to-infinitives as verbal complements in Late Modern and Present-Day English: Between motivation and change. English Studies 88:1 ► pp. 67 ff.
Littlemore, Jeannette & Graham Low
2006. Metaphoric Competence, Second Language Learning, and Communicative Language Ability. Applied Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 268 ff.
De Rycker, Teun
2005. Review of Rudzka-Ostyn, Brygida (2003). ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 149-150 ► pp. 93 ff.
HANAZAKI, MIKI M.
2005. Toward a Model of Principled Polysemy (A. Tyler and V. Evans, The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition). ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 22:2 ► pp. 412 ff.
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2003. For‐to Complement Clauses in English: A Cognitive Grammar Analysis. Studia Linguistica 57:3 ► pp. 171 ff.
Tyler, Andrea & Vyvyan Evans
2003. The Semantics of English Prepositions,
Cadiot, Pierre
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[no author supplied]
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF/2AB: Linguistics/English
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General