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parting sigh before he set off for Wiltshire. (J
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| parting sigh before he set off for Wiltshire. (J. AUSTEN) The active construction would have been, The young lover put an end to their conference, where an end would be a non-prepositional, and to their conference a prepositional object. It might be argued, however, that put an end is something of a phraseological unit and should therefore be treated as the predicate. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the noun end is included into the passive form of the verb, and the subject of the passive construction is the noun which, in the active construction, would have been part of the prepositional object.
It should also be noted that a preposition does not necessarily connect the word which immediately precedes it with the one that follows. Cases are frequent enough in which there is no connection at all between the preposition and the preceding word. For instance, in the sentence, This beauty is a trifle dimmed now by traces of recent illness (O'NEILL) there is no connection between the words now and by. The preposition by is of course connected with the passive participle dimmed and the adverb now could be left out without affecting the connections and the functions of the preposition: This beauty is dimmed by traces of recent illness. The same may be said about the sentence I get the same tale of woe from Functions of Prepositions 155 e very one in our part of the country (Idem); the preposition from is not connected with the noun woe which precedes it, it is connected with the verb get, which is separated from it by five other words. Many more examples of this kind might be given. This should warn us against an oversimplified understanding of the syntactical function of a preposition. Special attention must be given to groups of words whose meaning and functions in the sentence are the same as those of prepositions. Here belong the groups out of, as to, as for, instead of, in spite of, etc. We cannot term these groups prepositions, since a preposition is a word, not a word group, and it is essential to keep up the distinction between words and word groups; neglect of it would bring about a muddle both in grammar and in lexicology. The current haziness in the treatment of such groups and the vague terms "compound preposition" and the like are not conducive to a clear and consistent grammatical theory. Since much the same can be said about phrases equivalent in meaning and function to conjunctions, we will return to this problem after having considered the conjunctions. |