The economy principle and English predicative prepositional phrases

Abstract

This paper is aimed at analysing the relationship between the economy principle and English Predicative Prepositional Phrases (henceforth, PPPs). These can be defined 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). Such is the case of “under arrest” in [1]: [1] The vessel remained under arrest from September the twenty-sixth until October the nineteenth (ICE-GB:S2A-065 #18:1:A). As for the economy principle and the principle of the least effort, Vicentini (2003) studied the origin of these theoretical notions. Different examples obtained from the BNC and ICE-GB corpora and from various dictionaries confirm the hypothesis according to which the selection of certain PPPs will allow speakers to convey a given meaning by means of a more reduced number of words. Thus, the PPPs “in clover” and “in hand” are defined as “to have enough money to be able to live a very comfortable life” (Turnbull, 20108: 278) and “receiving attention and being dealt with” (Crowther, 19955: 537), respectively: [2] "As I was saying," Patrick Milligan continued, once his youngest was out of the house, "if the best came to the best, and your sister married the old codger, we could be in clover" (BNC:EEW 2057). [3] In fact the repairs were already in hand <,,> (ICE-GB:S1B-069 #163:1:B). These sentences clearly show that PPPs which are formally simple can express complex ideas. In fact, “in clover” and “in hand” illustrate the smallest structure of a PP, just consisting of a preposition and a NP as its C. However, on some occasions certain PPPs are chosen to avoid redundant structures such as “be being”. In fact, the use of “at issue” and “under construction” in [4] and [5] prevents speakers from saying “may be being dealt with” and “which will be being built”, respectively: [4] Again, the meaning of `necessary´ may be at issue but the important factor is that the presumption can be and, in many cases, probably will be cancelled out by express terms (BNC:HXD 175). [5] One of the major features is a timber-framed house which will be under construction throughout the show, allowing visitors to see the various elements and skills involved (BNC:A16 61). Furthermore, there are other reasons why PPPs are selected in certain communicative contexts. Thus, “in the club” is defined as “pregnant” (Rundell, 20072: 273; Turnbull, 20108: 279) and “off your chump” as “crazy” (Rundell, 20072: 240), but these PPPs also convey some other subtle nuances. For that reason they are labelled as “British informal old-fashioned” (Rundell, 20072: 273 and 240, respectively). Therefore, it can be concluded that these are counter-examples since in some cases speakers will opt for more complex structures (“pregnant” and “crazy” are one-word adjectives, whereas the PPs “in the club” and “off your chump”, on the contrary, consist of 3). To this last group of examples belong some PPPs which can be classified as euphemisms. Rees (2006: v) defined them as follows: “[...] the word or phrase has the specific function of concealing something of the nature and meaning of what it describes”. Such is the case of the PPP “in Abraham's bosom” in [6], which could be replaced by the adjective “dead”: [6] The child was in Abraham's bosom (Simpson, 2014).