Editing Adposition (section)

==Classification of adpositions==
As noted above, adpositions are referred to by various terms, depending on their position relative to the complement.

While the term ''preposition'' sometimes denotes any adposition, its stricter meaning refers only to one that precedes its complement. Examples of this, from English, have been given above; similar examples can be found in many European and other languages, for example:
*[[German grammar|German]]: {{lang|de|'''mit''' einer Frau}} ("'''with''' a woman")
*[[French grammar|French]]: {{lang|fr|'''sur''' la table}} ("'''on''' the table")
*[[Welsh morphology|Welsh]]: {{lang|cy|'''ar''' y bwrdd}} ("'''on''' the table")
*[[Polish grammar|Polish]]: '''''na''' stole'' ("'''on''' the table")
*[[Russian grammar|Russian]]: '''''у''' меня'' ("'''in the possession of''' me" [I have])
*[[Khmer grammar|Khmer]]: '''លើ'''ក្តារខៀន ['''ləː''' kdaːkʰiən] ("'''on''' (the) blackboard")
*[[Tigrinya grammar|Tigrinya]]: '''አብ ልዕሊ''' ጣውላ ['''abː''' '''lɨʕli''' tʼawla] ("'''at/on''' '''top''' table"); '''አብ ትሕቲ''' ጣውላ ['''abː''' '''tɨħti''' tʼawla] ("'''at/on''' '''under''' table")

In certain grammatical constructions, the complement of a preposition may be absent or may be moved from its position directly following the preposition. This may be referred to as [[preposition stranding]] (see also [[#Stranding|below]]), as in "Whom did you go '''with'''?" and  "There's only one thing worse than being talked '''about'''." There are also some (mainly colloquial) expressions in which a preposition's complement may be omitted, such as "I'm going to the park. Do you want to come '''with''' [me]?", and the French ''Il fait trop froid, je ne suis pas habillée '''pour''''' ("It's too cold, I'm not dressed '''for''' [the situation].")
The bolded words in these examples are generally still considered prepositions because when they form a phrase with a complement (in more ordinary constructions) they must appear first.

A ''postposition'' follows its complement to form a postpositional phrase. Examples include:
*[[Latin language|Latin]]: {{lang|la|me'''cum'''}} ("'''with''' me", literally "me '''with'''")
*[[Turkish grammar|Turkish]]: {{lang|tr|benim'''le'''}} or {{lang|tr|benim '''ile'''}} ("'''with''' me", literally "my '''with'''") 
*[[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]: {{Lang|hu|fa '''alatt'''}} ("'''under''' the tree", literally "tree '''under'''") 
*[[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 桌子'''上''' ''zhuōzi '''shàng''''' (lit. "table '''on'''"); this is a nominal form, which usually requires an additional preposition to form an adverbial phrase (see [[Chinese grammar#Locative phrases|Chinese locative phrases]])
*English:  ''ten kilometers '''away''''', ''ten months '''ago''''' (both could be considered adverbs)

Some adpositions can appear either before or after their complement:
* English: ''the evidence '''notwithstanding''''' OR '''''notwithstanding''' the evidence''
* German: ''meiner Meinung '''nach''''' OR '''''nach''' meiner Meinung'' ("'''in''' my opinion")
* German: ''die Straße '''entlang''''' OR '''''entlang''' der Straße'' ("'''along''' the road"; here a different [[grammatical case|case]] is used when ''entlang'' precedes the noun)
 
An adposition like the above, which can be either a preposition or a postposition, can be called an '''ambiposition'''.<ref>See Reindl (2001), Libert (2006).</ref> However, ''ambiposition'' may also be used to refer to a circumposition (see below),<ref>Gernot Windfuhr, ''Iranian Languages'', Routledge 2013 p. 736.</ref> or to a word that appears to function as a preposition and postposition simultaneously, as in the [[Vedic Sanskrit]] construction (noun-1) ''ā'' (noun-2), meaning "from (noun-1) to (noun-2)".<ref>Vít Bubeník, ''From Case to Adposition: The Development of Configurational Syntax in Indo-European Languages'', John Benjamins Publishing 2006, p. 109.</ref>

Whether a language has primarily prepositions or postpositions is seen as an aspect of its [[Linguistic typology|typological]] classification, and tends to correlate with other properties related to [[head directionality]]. Since an adposition is regarded as the [[head (linguistics)|head]] of its phrase, prepositional phrases are head-initial (or right-[[branching (linguistics)|branching]]), while postpositional phrases are head-final (or left-branching). There is a tendency for languages that feature postpositions also to have other head-final features, such as [[subject–object–verb|verbs that follow their objects]]; and for languages that feature prepositions to have other head-initial features, such as [[subject–verb–object|verbs that precede their objects]]. This is only a tendency, however; an example of a language that behaves differently is [[Latin grammar|Latin]], which employs mostly prepositions, even though it typically places verbs after their objects.

A ''circumposition'' consists of two or more parts, positioned on both sides of the complement. Circumpositions are very common in [[Pashto language|Pashto]] and [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]]. The following are examples from [[Northern Kurdish]] (Kurmanji):
* ''bi ... re'' ("with")
* ''di ... de'' ("in", for things, not places)
* ''di ... re'' ("via, through")
* ''ji ... re'' ("for")
* ''ji ... ve'' ("since")

Various constructions in other languages might also be analyzed as circumpositional, for example:
* English: '''''from''' now '''on'''''
* [[Dutch language|Dutch]]: '''''naar''' het einde '''toe''''' ("towards the end", lit. "to the end to")
* [[Standard Chinese|Chinese]]: '''从'''冰箱'''里''' '''''cóng''' bīngxiāng '''lǐ''''' ("from the inside of the refrigerator", lit. "from refrigerator inside")
* [[French language|French]]: '''''à''' un détail '''près''''' ("except for one detail", lit. "at one detail near")
* [[Swedish language|Swedish]]: '''''för''' tre timmar '''sedan''''' ("three hours ago", lit. "for three hours since")
* [[German language|German]]: '''''aus''' dem Zimmer '''heraus''''' ("out from the room", lit. "from the room out")
* [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]: '''''ካብ ''' ሕጂ ''''''ን'''ደሓር ("from now on", lit. "from now to later")
Most such phrases, however, can be analyzed as having a different hierarchical structure (such as a prepositional phrase modifying a following adverb). The Chinese example could be analyzed as a prepositional phrase headed by ''cóng'' ("from"), taking the [[Chinese grammar#Locative phrases|locative noun phrase]] ''bīngxīang lǐ'' ("refrigerator inside") as its complement.

An '''inposition''' is a rare type of adposition that appears between parts of a complex complement. For example, in the native Californian [[Timbisha language]], the phrase "from a mean cold" can be translated using the word order "cold from mean"—the inposition follows the noun but precedes any following [[modifier (grammar)|modifier]]s that form part of the same [[noun phrase]].<ref>Matthew S. Dryer, [http://wals.info/chapter/85 "Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase"], in ''The World Atlas of Language Structures Online''. Retrieved 2015-01-01.</ref> The Latin word ''cum'' is also commonly used as an inposition, as in the phrase ''[[summa cum laude]]'', meaning "with highest praise", lit. "highest with praise".

The term '''interposition''' has been used<ref>See Melis (2003), p. 22. The term is used here in French, and in reference to the French language.</ref> for adpositions in structures such as ''word '''for''' word'', French ''coup '''sur''' coup'' ("one after another, repeatedly"), and Russian друг '''с''' другом ("one with the other"). This is not a case of an adposition appearing inside its complement, as the two nouns do not form a single phrase (there is no phrase *''word word'', for example); such uses have more of a [[coordination (linguistics)|coordinating]] character.