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13th International Conference
on Functional Grammar
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| Multi-preposition constructions in English |
Evelien Keizer,
Universiteit van Amsterdam,
Amsterdam,The Netherlands
Although
a great deal of attention has been paid, in various
theoretical frameworks, to verb-preposition constructions,1
very little research has been done on constructions with
multiple prepositions.2 Like simple
verb-preposition constructions, these constructions come in
various kinds, some of which are exemplified in (1)-(4):
I. “Phrasal verb” constructions (cf. Collins
Cobuild English Grammar, 1990:169-170):
| Intransitive: |
(1) |
a. |
His girlfriend
walked out on him.
|
|
|
b. |
I couldn’t put up with his paranoia.
|
| Transitive: |
(2) |
a. |
We tried to talk her out of
it.
|
|
|
b. |
I’m sure they put him up to
it.
|
II. “Non-phrasal verb” constructions:
| Intransitive: |
(3) |
a. |
John went up unto the roof. |
|
|
b. |
He lives over in Wales. |
| Transitive: |
(4) |
a. |
We put the junk down onto
the floor. |
|
|
b. |
Sue left the chairs uot in
the garden |
The
aim of this paper is to provide a detailed
description of English multi-preposition constructions and to propose an analysis of
these constructions within the framework of FDG (e.g.
Hengeveld & Mackenzie 2006, in press). It is believed that
the paper will
help to develop the theory of FGD in two ways: it will apply
the theory to an as yet largely unexplored set of English
data, and, by seeking to provide the constructions in question
with an FDG-analysis, will serve to test the viability of the general architecture of
FDG.
Authentic data (from the BNC, ICE-GB and the Internet) will be used (i)
to find out whether other types of multi-preposition
construction need to be distinguished apart from those in
(1)-(4); and (ii) to test the tenability of the preliminary
analyses provided in Section 3. To this end, a number of
semantic and syntactic tests will be applied to the data. The
semantic tests will relate to matters of meaning, valency and
preposition selection; the syntactic tests will involve
alternative placement of the prepositional unit(s) (fronting,
clefting, questioning, relativization), coordination, modifier
placement and reversibility.
_________________
1
For a detailed discussion of verb-preposition constructions
and brief overviews of the literature see e.g. Gries (1999)
and Dehé (2002). For an FDG treatment, see Keizer (fc.)).
2
Occasional examples can be found in Den Dikken (1995: 144) and
Gries (1999: 110).
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| References: |
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Dehé,
N. 2002. Particle verbs in English. Syntax, information
structure and intonation. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
-
Dikken,
M. den 1995. Particles.
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
-
Gries,
S.T. 1999. Particle movement: A cognitive and functional approach. Cognitive
Linguistics 10, 105-145.
-
Hengeveld,
K.., Mackenzie, J.L. 2006. Functional Discourse Grammar.
In: Brown, K. (ed.), Encyclopedia of language and
linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier, 668-676.
-
Hengeveld, K. , Mackenzie, J.L. in press, 2008. Functional Discourse
Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Keizer,
M.E. fc. Verb-preposition constructions in Functional
Discourse Grammar.
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