The preposition as another type of functional connective - 5This is the 8th of the Forum’s 9-part retrospective series on the English connectives—the coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, prepositions, and discourse markers. The series started last Monday, June 3, 2010, and is running daily till tomorrow, June 11.We’re done with our review of the prepositions as conjunctions for indicating relationships in space and in time, so we’ll now turn our sights to their role as connectives for establishing logical relationships.
As earlier pointed out in this series, some prepositions work very much like conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs—but with a major structural difference. A preposition typically establishes a relationship between ideas within the same clause; this is in contrast with a conjunction or conjunctive adverb, which typically establishes a relationship between clauses or across sentences and across paragraphs. Depending on how the sentence is constructed, in fact, some prepositions can also function as conjunctions and adverbs—sometimes even as adjectives.
To make the functional distinctions clearer, let’s take the word “since” as an example. It can work as a preposition: “That company has been around
since 1852.” As subordinating conjunction: “The widow regained her zest for life
since she remarried last year.” And as conjunctive adverb: “The widow remarried last year;
since then, she regained her zest for life.”
Here now are the most common prepositions for indicating a specific logical relationship between ideas:
Prepositions that establish the additive relationship. “Besides,” “in addition to,” and “as well as” allow the adding of similar information within the same clause: “The movie was critically acclaimed
besides becoming a box-office hit.” “The irate hotel customer demanded moral damages
in addition to refunds.” “The accused was eager
as well as ready to settle with the complainant.”
Prepositions that establish the comparative or conditional relationship. “Like” and “as” can establish similarity between ideas within the same clause: “The spurned wife bawled
like a child.” “The disenfranchised voters complained
as a group.”
The prepositions “according to” and “in compliance with” establish conformity to an idea: “
According to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, the modern human evolved from an earlier humanoid species.” “The litigants dropped their counterclaims
in compliance with their compromise agreement.”
The prepositions “despite,” “in spite of,” “as opposed to,” “in contrast to,” “instead of,” and “notwithstanding” can link opposing or contrastive ideas within the same clause: “The aggrieved woman forgave her husband
despite his indiscretions.” “My friend became a successful professional
in spite of his family’s poverty.” “The congressional loser received an improbable 50,283 votes
as opposed to the winner’s 50,300 votes.” “Summers in Baguio City are adequately cool
in contrast to those in the Luzon lowlands.” “The priest won as provincial governor
notwithstanding his rival’s much-vaunted political machinery.”
The prepositions “against,” “contrary to,” and “rather than” establish opposition between ideas within the same clause: “Stepfather was pitted
against son in the sensational inheritance case.” “The incumbent mayor won
contrary to popular sentiment.” “The opulent gift scandalized
rather than pleased the bride.”
The preposition “without” establishes a condition or the absence or lack of something: “The rebellious son vowed to finish college
without parental support.” “The couple fought in public
without embarrassment.”
Prepositions that establish the causal or reason relationship. Six prepositions—“due to,” “because of,” “as a result of,” “on account of,” “in consequence of,” and “thanks to”—are used to introduce a reason within the same clause: “The Tokyo flight was delayed
due to inclement weather.” “The family corporation faltered
because of intense sibling rivalry.” “The top bank executive was ousted
on account of serious personal indiscretions.” “The island sunk
in consequence of the massive volcanic eruption.” “The country’s financial situation has improved,
thanks to the growth of its manpower exports.”
The preposition “for” is used to indicate purpose, and “from” to indicate a condition of release or removal: “The company established a professorial chair
for entrepreneurial education.” “All that pill can offer is temporary relief
from the common cold.”
This brings to a close our review of the various English prepositions as connectives. Tomorrow, we will take up for last the wide array of discourse markers as another class of English connectives.
(Next:
Using discourse markers for contextualizing ideas) June 11, 2019
This essay, 1047th of a series, appeared in the weekly column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Education Section of The Manila Times
, July 6, 2017 issue (print edition only), © 2017 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.--------------------
EARLIER IN THIS 9-PART SERIES:The preposition as another type of functional connective - 4The preposition as another type of functional connective - 3The preposition as another type of functional connective - 2The preposition as another type of functional connective - 1Choosing the right connectives for our ideas - 2Choosing the right connectives for our ideas - 1Mastery of the English connectives can make us write much better
