Complex Preposition vs Prepositional Phrase

Halliday (1994: 212):

Preposition Group vs Prepositional Phrase

Halliday (1994: 212):

Preposition Group

Halliday (1994: 212):

Complements Of Prepositions

Halliday (1994: 168):

Circumstances Without Prepositions

Halliday (1994: 168):

The Preposition As Signal Of Textual Status

Halliday (1994: 167-8):

Difficulties In Identifying Circumstances: Preposition Attached To A Verb

Halliday (1994: 159-60):

Circumstance As Minor Process

Halliday (1994: 158):

Degree Of Involvement: Reflections In The Grammar

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 172):

The different degrees of involvement are reflected in the way the figure, and its elements, are realised in the grammar of the clause. A participant is realised as a nominal group, and is typically placed next before or next after the verbal group realising the process. Circumstances typically occur further away from the process, and are of two distinct types. Type 1, simple circumstance, represents a quality; this type is realised as an adverbial group … . Type 2, macro circumstance, is realised as a prepositional phrase, which in turn consists of preposition + nominal group. The nominal group, as we have seen, construes an entity — something that could function directly as a participant Here however the entity is functioning only as a circumstantial element in the process: a location, or an instrument, or an accompanying entity, or so on (e.g. don't walk on the grass, I washed it with sugar soap, she came with her children); it enters into the clause by courtesy of the preposition, only indirectly so to speak.

Complex Prepositions Vs Prepositional Phrases [Diagnostics]

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 423):

Complex prepositions such as in front (of), for the sake (of), have evolved from prepositional phrases, with front, sake as ‘Complement’.  Many expressions are indeterminate between the two … however, there is a difference; those that have become prepositions typically occur without a Deictic preceding the noun (in front of not in the front of), and the noun occurs in the singular only (in front of not in fronts of).  In some instances duplex forms occur: beside has become a full preposition, but because it is often used in an abstract or metaphorical sense a modern version of the original complex form by the side of has reappeared along with it, and this, in its turn, is now starting to follow the same route towards prepositional status.

Preposition Group Vs Prepositional Phrase

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 423):

It is important to make a distinction between a preposition group, such as right behind or immediately in front of, which is a Modifier-Head structure expanded from and functionally equivalent to a preposition, and a prepositional phrase, which is not an expansion of anything but a clause-like structure in which the Process/Predicator function is performed by a preposition and not by a verb.

Preposition Group

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 423):

Prepositions are not a sub-class of adverbials; functionally they are related to verbs.  But they form groups by modification, in the same way as conjunctions; e.g. right behind, not without, way off as in right behind the door, not without some misgivings, all along the beach, way off the mark. Again, there are more complex forms such as in front of, for the sake of which can be left unanalysed.  These are also subject to modification, as in just for the sake of, immediately in front of.

Prepositional Phrases Without A Range

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 364):

Here we can note that certain ‘adverbs’ such as up, out, over can be analysed alternatively as prepositions in prepositional phrases without a Range.

Participants Realised By Prepositional Phrases: Implications

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 329):

At the same time, there are many instances where a nominal group seems to have more or less the same function whether it is brought into the clause directly, or indirectly via a prepositional phrase: for example, John in sent John a message/sent a message to John. We have interpreted these as participant functions, rather than as circumstantial elements… . But they also suggest that the line between participants and circumstances is not a very clear one, and that the preposition does function like some highly generalised kind of process, by reference to which the nominal group that is attached to it establishes a participant status.

Prepositional Phrase: Minor Process & Participant

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 329):

Most circumstances are realised by prepositional phrases. A prepositional phrase can be interpreted as a shrunken clause, in which the preposition serves as a ‘minor process’, interpreted as a kind of mini-verb, and the nominal group as a participant in this minor process. … The preposition, it was suggested, acts as a kind of intermediary whereby a nominal element can be introduced as an ‘indirect’ participant in the main process.

Prepositional Phrases: Issues

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 328-9):

Rounding off our discussion of circumstances, let us now review their status in the grammar, focusing on the prepositional phrases in the grammar since most circumstances are realised by prepositional phrases. Issues arise because while prepositional phrases serve as circumstances by default, they can also serve as participants in the clause, and even as elements of groups (nominal or adverbial). Issues also arrive because while prepositions serve in prepositional phrases by default, they can also come to serve as extensions of verbs, so-called phrasal verbs (and we can also note conjunctive prepositions, prepositions used as structural conjunctions in bound clauses, as in who will authorise payment on ascertaining that the item was really received.

The Relation Of Macro Circumstantial Elements To Figures

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 218):

… looking at these same circumstantial elements from a complementary standpoint, from the point of view of their own internal composition […] a prepositional phrase represents a figure in miniature, with a structure analogous to one component of a figure — closest, perhaps, to Process + Range (so we refer to the participant in the circumstantial phrase as a “Minirange”). This means that, shifting our perspective, we can also suggest how the circumstantial elements are related to different figures. Table 5(5) combines the two perspectives, showing their relationship both to participants and to figures.

Macro Circumstances: Subsidiary Processes And Indirect Participants

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 218):

Those circumstantial elements that are realised by prepositional phrases are rather more complex, since they include another element — a participant — in their makeup. In such cases the element realised by the nominal group is still functioning as a participant in the process — but indirectly, being implicated only through the mediation of a preposition. That this is possible is because the preposition itself constitutes a subsidiary kind of ‘process’; one that does not function as a process in the main figure but is nevertheless related systematically to the spectrum of process types — mainly, though not exclusively, to processes of being.

The Status Of Macro Circumstances

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 172-3):

They are really reduced or minor figures, functioning as elements inside other figures. The preposition is a kind of mini-verb; the line between circumstances and figures is a very fuzzy one, and we often find agnate expressions where one is a prepositional phrase and the other is a non-finite clause: cf. I washed it using sugar soap, she came accompanied by her children. The entity that occurs inside the macro circumstance is therefore already entering into a relationship with a reduced form of a process; its participation in the main process is thus mediated and oblique. We can thus contrast the different statuses of two entities where one is a direct participant and the other enters in circumstantially; e.g. this dictionary was published in two volumes, where this dictionary is Goal while two volumes enters into the publishing process indirectly in a circumstance of Rôle.

Hypotactic Nominal Group Complex: Extension

Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 494):

In exactly the same way as with elaboration, a nominal group may be extended hypotactically by a prepositional phrase, the preposition having the same sense as when used to introduce a non-finite extending clause — (1) addition (positive) … (2) variation, replacement … (3) variation, subtraction … .