The prepositional phrase

Abstract

Prepositions are either basic lexical items, compounds, or lexicalized expressions. They denote various relations, such as location, direction to or from, time, manner, or more abstract relations. Prepositional phrases used as adverbial complements have an external argument which may raise to become the subject of a copula or the object of a transitive verb, or the subject or object of an unaccusative verb. A preposition may take its complement in a form of a DP, another PP, or a CP, or it may be intransitive. This is what prepositions have in common with verbs and adjectives. Some words that are traditionally called adverbs are here categorized as intransitive prepositions. Prepositions may be modified by words or phrases of various categories, such as adjectives in the neuter, adverbs, or measure phrases.