Editing Adposition (section)

==Grammatical properties==
An adposition typically combines with exactly one [[complement (linguistics)|complement]], most often a [[noun phrase]] (or, in a different analysis, a [[determiner phrase]]). In English, this is generally a noun (or something functioning as a noun, e.g., a [[gerund]]), together with its [[Specifier (linguistics)|specifier]] and [[modifier (grammar)|modifiers]] such as [[article (grammar)|article]]s, [[adjective]]s, etc. The complement is sometimes called the ''object'' of the adposition. The resulting [[phrase]], formed by the adposition together with its complement, is called an [[adpositional phrase]] or prepositional phrase (PP) (or for specificity, a postpositional or circumpositional phrase).

An adposition establishes a [[grammar|grammatical]] relationship that links its complement to another word or phrase in the context. It also generally establishes a [[semantic]] relationship, which may be spatial (''in'', ''on'', ''under'', ...), temporal (''after'', ''during'', ...), or of some other type (''of'', ''for'', ''via'', ...). The [[World Atlas of Language Structures]] treats a word as an adposition if it takes a noun phrase as a complement and indicates the grammatical or semantic relationship of that phrase to the verb in the containing clause.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chapter 85: Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase|url=http://wals.info/chapter/85|work=World Atlas of Language Structures|access-date=29 August 2011}}</ref>

Some examples of the use of English prepositions are given below. In each case, the prepositional phrase appears in ''italics'', the preposition within it appears in '''''bold''''', and the preposition's [[complement (grammar)|complement]] is <u>underlined</u>. As demonstrated in some of the examples, more than one prepositional phrase may act as an [[adjunct (grammar)|adjunct]] to the same word.
* As an adjunct to a noun:
** the weather '''''in''' <u>March</u>''
** cheese '''''from''' <u>France</u>'' '''''with''' <u>live bacteria</u>''
* As a [[predicative expression]] (complement of a [[copula (linguistics)|copula]])
** The key is '''''under''' <u>the stone</u>''.
* As an adjunct to a verb:
** sleep '''''throughout''' <u>the winter</u>''
** danced '''''atop''' <u>the tables</u> '''for''' <u>hours</u>''
** dispense '''''with''' <u>the formalities</u>'' (see [[#Semantic functions|Semantic functions]], above)
* As an adjunct to an adjective:
** happy '''''for''' <u>them</u>''
** sick '''''until''' <u>recently</u>''

In the last of these examples the complement has the form of an adverb, which has been [[nominalization|nominalised]] to serve as a noun phrase; see [[#Different forms of complement|Different forms of complement]], below. Prepositional phrases themselves are sometimes nominalized:
* '''''In''' <u>the cellar</u>'' was chosen as the best place to store the wine.

An adposition may determine the [[grammatical case]] of its complement. In English, the complements of prepositions take the [[objective case]] where available (''from him'', not *''from he''). In [[Koine Greek]], for example, certain prepositions always take their objects in a certain case (e.g., ἐν always takes its object in the dative), while other prepositions may take their object in one of two or more cases, depending on the meaning of the preposition (e.g., διά takes its object in the genitive or the accusative, depending on the meaning). Some languages have cases that are used exclusively after prepositions ([[prepositional case]]), or special forms of [[pronoun]]s for use after prepositions ([[prepositional pronoun]]).

The functions of adpositions overlap with those of case markings (for example, the meaning of the English preposition ''of'' is expressed in many languages by a [[genitive case]] ending), but adpositions are classed as [[syntactic]] elements, while case markings are [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]].

Adpositions themselves are usually [[Uninflected word|non-inflecting]] ("invariant"): they do not have paradigms of the form (such as tense, case, gender, etc.)  the same way that verbs, adjectives, and nouns can. There are exceptions, though, such as prepositions that have fused with a pronominal object to form [[inflected preposition]]s.

The following properties are characteristic of most adpositional systems:
* Adpositions are among the most frequently occurring words in languages that have them. For example, one frequency ranking for English word forms<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wordcount.org/main.php|title=Wordcount · Tracking the Way We Use Language|website=www.wordcount.org}}</ref> begins as follows (prepositions in bold):
::''the, '''of''', and, '''to''', a, '''in''', that, it, is, was, I, '''for''', '''on''', you'', …
* The most common adpositions are single, [[morpheme|monomorphemic]] words. According to the ranking cited above, for example, the most common English prepositions are ''on'', ''in'', ''to'', ''by'', ''for'', ''with'', ''at'', ''of'', ''from'', ''as'', all of which are single-syllable words and cannot be broken down into smaller units of meaning.
* Adpositions form a [[closed class]] of lexical items and cannot be productively derived from words of other categories.