Main syntactic features of English predicative prepositional phrases

Abstract

This paper is aimed at analyzing the main syntactic features of predicative prepositional phrases (henceforth, PPPs) in English. Little attention has been paid to them so far since neither their relevance nor their frequency are supposed to be enough. Different examples illustrating those syntactic characteristics will be obtained from the BNC and the ICE-GB as well as from various grammars and monolingual dictionaries. First of all, they can be described as those phrases which are headed by a preposition whose Complement (C) is a Noun Phrase (NP) and which perform the function of Subject Complement (Cs) at clause level. Such is the case of “of value” in [1]: [1] It can be concluded that Adomnan's life of Columba is of value for the structure of society which seems not to have changed greatly between Columba's time and Adomnan (ICE-GB:W1A-002 #115:1). Thus, there is an intensive relationship between the Subject (S) and this unit since the latter predicates something of the S, thus conveying a condition, feature, quality, or state which is attached to the S. Secondly, depending on the nature of the meaning they express, the examples in italics below can be replaced by the Adjective Phrases, Verb Phrases, and clauses included between square brackets: [2] If you do not listen your responses may be "off beam" [wrong] and you may appear to others to be rather stupid (BNC:EEB 603). [3] Mary then came to see me and was at this point in tears [crying] over the incident and her treatment by Mr Smith (ICE-GB:W1B-021 #72:5). [4] He was a little out of breath [breathing fast and with difficulty], having hurried to the town meeting (BNC:CFJ 311). Moreover, it is possible to find examples of PPPs in coordination, what is an argument proving the similarities between them and Adjective Phrases: [5] Doctors at the hospital say Mr Crowther is continuing to show signs of slight improvement although he's still in intensive care and in a critical condition (BNC:K22 1981). [6] She is young and in good health (Quirk et alii, 1985, p. 732). Many examples of PPPs are the result of a previous process of ellipsis (whereby some words have been omitted from a given structure; e.g. “an aspect” after the copulative verb “is” in [7]) or fronting (for instance, [8]): [7] And uh o one particular aspect <,> o of the delays uh i is uh uh of considerable relevance uh on this occasion <,> (ICE-GB:S2A-063 #7:1:A). [8] At odds with the mayor remain the rendents of the condos, who are willing to fight a long battle over the additional taxes (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002, p. 1389). In addition, there are examples of stranded prepositions in exclamative, interrogative, and relative clauses, as shown in sentences [9]-[11]: [9] What a mess she was in […] (ICE-GB:W2F-003 #107:1). [10] What stature is she of? (Jespersen, 1909-49, vol. III, p. 398). [11] But I think Heseltine's got what it takes to win the next election and get us out of this mess that we are in (ICE-GB:S2B-003 #77:1:M). Finally different conclusions will be drawn on the previous analysis. It can be highlighted, among others, that the syntactic behaviour of PPPs is very similar to that of Adjective Phrases.