Semantic characteristics

§ 247. Semantically prepositions form a varied group of words. Most of them are polysemantic (in, to, for, at, from), their original meaning having become vague, others have retained their full meaning and are accordingly monosemantic (down, over, across, off, till, until, save, near, along, among, despite, during, etc.). This also applies to prepositions borrowed from Latin: versus, via, plus, minus.

Relations expressed by prepositions may be of various types:

1) agentive - the letter was sent by a friend of mine;

2) attributive - a drawing in crayon, the people in question (люди, о которых идет речь);

3) possessive and partial relations - one of my friends, the roof of the house, a glass of brandy, a decline in

waste, a rise in production;

4) relation indicating origin, material, or source - a girl from Brighton, made of gold:

5) objective relation – don’t be angry with me, I'II look into the matter, to work at a book, to speak on the

matter (about the matter, of the matter);

6) relation indicating to whom the action is directed - to show it to him, to give lessons to the children;

7) instrumental relation - to write with a pencil, to cut with a knife;

8) relation of subordination - to be secretary to a Minister;

9) relation defining the sphere or field of activity - the country depends on exports for its food; Tom is good

at football;

10) relation of involvement or association - to cooperate with some­body; coffee with cream, to compare this

with that, to get involved in a discussion;

11) respective relation - he is big for a youngster, I did not know I had a blackguard for a son;

12) relation of resemblance - he is like his father;

13) relation of dissociation and differentiation - to disburden oneself of one’s past; to be devoid of

something, to disentangle oneself from something; to know something from something, to deduce from

something;

14) various adverbial relations:

a) of manner, means, style and language - with diligence, by telegram, in slang, in bad print, in a neat

hand.

in good style, in brief;

b) of purpose or aim - to send for the doctor, he did it for fun, the police were after the criminal;

c) temporal relations. These may be subdivided into those denoting precedence, sequence, duration, etc. -

in good time, at 5 o’clock, before the dawn;

d) of cause or reason - I did it out of fear, through his negligence, I despise you for this;

e) spacial relation, including directional relation - past the gate, by the window, across the river, at the

gate;

f ) concessive relation - in spite of the bad weather, despite our protests, for all his attempts, with all her

diligence.

The relations enumerated above to a great degree depend on the meaning of the words connected by prepositions. Sometimes the relation indicated by a preposition is too abstract to be defined in words, as its use is often figurative or metaphorical, as in:

He broke away from them on some vague pretext.

The role of the preposition is difficult to define when it introduces predicatives, when its meaning is

‘in the capasity of’, ‘in the role of’, ‘having the quality of’.

As a friend he was admirable, but one cannot praise him as a husband.

His career as a lawyer was short.

We regard him as a fool.

She went to the ball with her aunt as chaperone.

When a preposition is used figuratively, the concept expressed by the preposition may be so blurred or weak that one preposition may be replaced by another without any essential alteration to the relation between the words. Thus the following words may be used with different prepositions without change of meaning:

aversion from, to

disgust against, at, towards

repugnance against, for, to

along, down, over the centuries

Words of the same root can be used with different prepositions:

to pride oneself on, to be proud of, pride in;

to confide in, confidence in, to be confident of.

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