At the risk of beating a horse that needs no flogging.....merely out of a desire to assist with preposition code development, here is a review of what a couple of old textbooks gathering dust on my shelves suggests with respect to prepositions:
A
preposition is generally defined as a word which shows a relationship in time, space, cause or manner between the object of the preposition and another word in the sentence.
A
prepositional phrase, which can act as an adjective or adverb, is a preposition plus its object and any modifiers.
The
object of the preposition may be a noun, pronoun, or other noun substitute such as a gerund ( -ing form).
Regardless of function in the sentence,
prepositions are prepositions – even if used as (subordinating) conjunctions. (Not intentionally trying to get in a p***ing contest, just reflecting what my textbooks say and probably only relevant to truly advanced sentence parsing in HAL or any other discourse analysis. The point here is that words such as
and and
or can serve only as conjunctions, while some prepositions can serve as both. What they are and what function the serve grammatically in specific situations may be different. Then again, I have three sources that argue differently. ) A preposition implies an adverb (which in turn implies an adjective) in the right circumstances; the converse is not true.
Prepositions usually come before their noun (or pronoun): after the war, people with money, look after this, we talked about my problems. But sometimes they are 'deferred', that is, they come after their noun or pronoun:
ex., They are looked after, What did you talk about?
Josef Essberger, in English Prepositions Listed, (
http://resources.englishclub.com/ebepl.htm), claims there are 94 one-word prepositions and 56 complex prepositions used in the English language. If you have identified 87 single word prepositions, vonsmith, that’s pretty good (>92% of what he lists). I could come up with only 70 on my own. Here (
http://www.testmagic.com/Knowledge_Base/lists/grammar/prepositions.htm ) is a link to a page listing 110 prepositions.
Complex prepositions include not only two-word, but also three-word prepositions: ex.,
in case of - in spite of - in comparison with - in touch with - by means of - by way of - on behalf of - on account of - for the sake of - in exchange for - in addition to - with reference toPreposition types or classifications include:
1. indicators of time – such as
before, after, in, since2. indicators of place – such as
at, on, in3. indicators of movement –
to, from, towards4. those which are or can be paired with nouns where, if separated, meaning does not change significantly.
Ex.,
approval of-----fondness for-----love of-----participation in5. those which are paired with adjectives to link the modifier to the noun being modified.
Ex.,
afraid of-----angry at----- careless about6. those which are paired with verbs in such a way as to create verbal phrases.
Ex.,
apologize for-----give over-----trust in-----bring upThere are also many situations where idiomatic expressions have developed. For instance, one agrees
to a proposal (but proposals are not entities which can be agreed
with); one can argue
about a matter (but
about implies dimensionality not location – a difference shown in “walk
aboutâ€); and one can correspond
with a person, not correspond
to him/her (although things can correspond
to each other).
Another consideration is whether or not the intent is to indicate the completion of an action (as in “fell on (to) the floorâ€) or simply a position or location (ex., “x is on the floorâ€).
The word “to†is particularly problematic as it is used when not acting as an ordinary preposition, but as part of an infinitival verb phrase. No others propositions act in this particular fashion as far as I can tell.
To1. can be used as verb + to + infinitive to express willingness, desire, intention or obligation
….ex., to be willing, (to) ask someone to do something, (to) plan to graduate
2. to + infinitive +([optional]to) + location/object
….ex., to walk (to), to speak (to), but also to write (to)
……...however, consider (to) drive toward
Another point to remember is that certain prepositions frequently occur in pairs within a sentence. The most common of these are:
1. From-to (distance, time, and degree ranges)
2. From-until/till (time ranges only)
3. Out of-into (change of enclosure or state)
4. Off (of)- On (to) (change of location with verbs like take and put)
Some participles, such as concerning and considering, are used as prepositions.
But is a seldom used preposition. When it is used as such,
but means the same things as except. Ex., Everyone laughed
but(except) John.
But usually functions as a conjunction.
The most commonly used prepositions are probably:
aboard, about, above, according to, across, across from, after, against, along, alongside, alongside of, along with, amid, among, apart from, around, aside from, at, away from, back of, because of, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, but, by, by means of, concerning, considering, despite, down, down from, during, except, except for, excepting for, from, from among, from between, from under, in, in addition to, in behalf of, in front of, in place of, in regard to, inside, inside of, in spite of, instead of, into, like, near, near to, of, off, on, on account of, on behalf of, onto, on top of, opposite, out, out of, outside, outside of, over, over to, owing to, past, prior to, regarding, round, round about, save, since, subsequent to, together, with, through, throughout, till, to, toward, under, underneath, until, unto, up, up to, upon, with, within, without 
