Download Those Problematic English Prepositions!

Survey
yes no Was this document useful for you?
   Thank you for your participation!

* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project

Document related concepts

English clause syntax wikipedia , lookup

English verbs wikipedia , lookup

American English wikipedia , lookup

English grammar wikipedia , lookup

Transcript
1
Those Problematic
English Prepositions!
by Bob Grubic
over
out
in
through
under
behind
on
between
CFI–BACI Conference
Long Beach, California
November 13, 2004
2
1
WHICH ENGLISH ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
The “rules” of English grammar are often variable because of differences in register and
dialect. English has a formal register which is used in expository writing and in formal
speeches. English also has an informal register used in informal conversation and in
informal writing. In appropriate contexts both registers are acceptable and are parts of
Standard English. Unacceptable forms are either nonstandard, i.e., characteristic of a
dialect that is different from Standard English, or ungrammatical forms that are not
acceptable to any native speaker of English.
Acceptable
Formal Register – written, formal grammar
e.g.: There exist a number of alternatives that we should consider.
(Standard Dialect)
Informal Register – spoken, colloquial grammar
e.g.: There’s several ways of looking at this problem.
Nonstandard Dialects of English
e.g.: I didn’t say nothing.
Unacceptable
Ungrammatical (not English)
e.g.: I no say that.
2
PARTS OF SPEECH
Noun
a word that names a person, animal, place, idea, or thing
house, car, people, love
Adjective
a word that describes a noun or pronoun (tells “what kind” or
“how many”)
big, happy, tall, green
Pronoun
a word that takes the place of a noun or noun phrase
he, she, it, this, who, mine
Verb
a word that shows action or state of being
run, talk, interpret, feel
Adverb
a word that describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb
(tells “how, when, where,” or “how much”)
carefully, slowly, unequivocally, very, quite
PREPOSITION
a word placed before a noun or pronoun to define its
relationship with another word in the sentence
on, under, between, during, with, at
Conjunction
a connecting word
and, or, but, moreover, however
Interjection
an exclamation that often expresses strong feelings or intense
emotion
Ouch! Wow! Damn!, Golly! Bravo!
3
PARTS OF SPEECH OR WORD CLASSES
Traditional grammars of English, following an approach which can be traced back
to Latin, agreed that there were eight parts of speech in English: the noun, pronoun,
adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Some books paid
separate attention to the participle; some additionally mentioned the article. But none was
in any doubt that the definition of the parts of speech was an essential first step in
learning about English Grammar.
Why is it necessary to talk about parts of speech at all? The main reason is to be
able to make general and economical statements about the way the words of the language
behave. It is only a matter of common sense to generalize, when we notice that a set of
words all work in the same way. In a simple case, we observe such sentences as
It is in the box.
It is near the fence.
It is on the horse.
It is by the table.
It is under the car.
It is for the book.
and note the identity of structure. In each instance, there is an item preceding the which
seems to have the same sort of function, expressing some kind of proximity relationship
between it (whatever that is) and the following words. Rather than talk about each of
these items individually, it makes sense to group them together into a single category.
Latin had words with the same function, which the grammarians called prepositions
(from prae + positio ‘placing in front’ – that is, in front of a noun, (and modern
English grammars have happily continued to use the term.
Modern grammarians are happy because this is one of the areas where Latin and
English grammar seem to behave in a similar way. The notion of preposition is a
particularly useful one for describing English. However, there is less happiness when
people try to apply the old part-of-speech labels to English words that do not have a clear
counterpart in Latin (such as the, shall, or the to in to go), or when they use definitions of
the parts of speech that prove difficult to work with. Indeed, when linguists began to look
closely at English grammatical structure in the 1940s and 1950s, they encountered so
many problems of identification and definition that the term part of speech soon fell out
of favor, word class being introduced instead. Word classes are equivalent to parts of
speech, but defined according to strictly linguistic criteria.
4
Parts of Speech
or
Word Classes
5
THOSE PESKY, PROBLEMATIC PREPOSITION
Pesky = troublesome, annoying
Problematic = difficult to deal with or understand
Prepositions pose more problems for the non-native speaker or learner of English than
any other part of speech. Why? Prepositions are just little words that never change in
form. They are pronounces softly, in unstressed syllables. The aren’t even given capital
letters in book titles. Native Speakers choose the correct ones without thinking. How can
they be confusing?
Let’s focus on the prepositions with this crossword puzzle…
6
THE CLASS OF PREPOSITIONS
A preposition expresses a relationship of meaning between two parts of a sentence, most
often showing how the two parts are related in space or time: We sat on the bench, They
left at three. Most of the common prepositions consist of only one word; they have no
distinctive ending, and do not vary. Several prepositions consist of more than one word.
Single-word prepositions include: about, at, before, by, down, for, from, in of , on, out,
over, round, since, through, to, under, up, with.
Multi-word prepositions include: (two-words) ahead of, because of, due to, instead of,
near to; (three words) as far as, by means of, in accordance with, in spite of, on behalf of.
The words in these prepositions do not vary freely, as they would in other circumstances.
In spite of, for example, cannot change to *out spite of or *in spite for.
Several prepositions are restricted in their frequency of use, especially such foreign
borrowings as anti, circa, versus, and vis-à-vis. Unto is archaic, and used only in
religious contexts. There are also some dialect uses, such as towards (British) vs. toward
(American), outwith (Scots, ‘except’), and while (Yorkshire, ‘until’).
7
SIMPLE STRUCTURE
PREPOSITION
+
OBJECT
on
the fence
=
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
on the fence
Prepositional phrases are used as:
Adjectives
The cat on the fence cried all night.
Three men in blue suits escorted the President.
He bought a car from the Ford dealer.
Adverbs
She threw the trash into the dumpster.
We bought the tickets from Ticket Master.
In an instant I knew it was a mistake.
8
A BIT OF HISTORY
English is recognized as having three distinct periods:
Old English
450 AD
Middle English
1100 AD
Modern English
1500 AD
Things happened to the English language after the decay of Old English and through the
Middle English period. There were independent changes taking place in different areas of
English – one was a change from SOV to more SVO. Another was the loss of inflected
forms (noun and adjective endings) to more critical use of preposition. English used to be
an inflected language.
•
•
•
•
example: paem scipum (dative ending on article and noun) O.E.
to to the shippes (using the common plural ending) M.E.
Sometimes the genitive –s was left off a noun that ended in s or that was followed
by a word beginning with s.
The only noun case to survive into Modern English was the genitive (’s or s’ in
writing) – a relic which continued to present problems in later centuries. Some of
the personal pronouns also kept the old dative forms: he vs. him, she vs. her, etc.)
The endings of the verb remained close to those of Old English during this period.
Most verbs would have had the following forms, illustrated here in Chaucer’s
English for turnen “turn.”
Verb
(I)
(thou)
(he/she/it)
(we/you/they)
Present Tense
turn (e)
turnest
turneth
turne (n)
Past Tense
turned (e)
turnedest
turned (e)
turned (en)
9
In early Modern English, several prepositions had different uses from today. Of, in
particular, is widespread: the zeal of (‘for’) thine house, tempted of (‘by’) Satan. Others
examples include in (‘at’) a good old age, taken to (‘as a’) wife, and like as (‘like’ or ‘as’)
the sand of the sea.
In English, word order within sentences is more rigid than it is in many other languages,
or than it was in English 1,000 years ago. One reason for this is that English has lost most
of its original Germanic system of inflections. This was a system of (1) suffixes on nouns
and adjectives that reflected the gender, number, and case of every noun in a sentence
and (2) suffixes on verbs that reflected the person and number of the subject noun.
Without recourse to this full range of inflections to mark subjects (and other objects of
various kinds) English came to rely on a more fixed word order to distinguish subjects
from objects. This rather fixed word order operates in conjunction with prepositions,
which help to indicate the semantic function of various objects.
The basic underlying word order in an English sentence is:
Example:
Subject – Verb – Direct Object
Joe
writes
poetry.
Thus, we say that English is an S-V-O language like French, Spanish, and many other
languages. If you have only studied languages like English, Spanish, and French, you
might assume that all languages follow S-V-O word order pattern. In fact, several other
languages such as Cantonese and colloquial Egyptian Arabic are also S-V-O. However,
there are three major orders for these constituents in the languages of the world, and S-OV and V-S-O are the two alternatives to S-V-O. Some major languages that follow the
subject-object-verb pattern as their basic ones are Japanese, Korean, and Persian. Some
languages that use the verb-subject-object pattern as the basic order are MalayoPolynesian languages such as Tagalog, the classical versions of Semitic languages such
as Hebrew and Arabic, and Celtic languages like Welsh and Breton.
10
PREPOSITIONS AND POSTPOSITIONS
Preposition gradually took on a more critical role in English in the Middle English
period, but there also exits a structure called a postposition.
A postposition is a grammatical particle that expresses some sort of relationship between
the preceding noun or pronoun (its object) and another part of the sentence; a
postpositional phrase functions as an adjective or adverb. Postpositions are the
equivalents of prepositions in languages where the object precedes the verb, such as
Japanese. (SOV languages)
There are three European languages (Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian) that use postpositions
instead of prepositions, and they are attached to their noun, e.g. in
Hungarian a haz
= the house
a hazban = in the house
Here are some more examples:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Finnish: talon edessä ("house in front of"), talon takana ("house behind of")
Hungarian: kutya nélkül ("dog without")
Japanese: doko ni ("where at"), doko e ("where to")
Korean: Hanguk e ("Korea to")
Hindi: Kamra m? ("room in")
German: dir gegenüber ("you opposite"); ihr zuliebe ("her sake for"), ihm zufolge
("him according to")
Other examples in Korean:
English
house
in the house
school
at school
Korean:
jip
jip-an
hac gyo
hac gyo esa
The Navajo language also uses postpositions.
English has one postposition: "ago"; however, English also has a tendency to form
postpositional compound words, such as "thereafter" and "wherein", a quality likely
borrowed from Latin, a fellow prepositional language. Some English speakers also tend
to use prepositions postpositionally when their objects are interrogative pronouns, such as
in "Where to?" or "What for?".
The possessive ’s and ‘ might be considered postpositions.
A postpositional particle that is attached to a noun in English would be –ward, as in
homeward and earthward.
11
A CLOSER LOOK AT PREPOSITIONS
Most of the prepositions in English are simple, one-word prepositions. Some are multiword prepositions (also called two-word, three-word, or compound prepositions).
See the lists below.
In the English language we have approximately 70 simple prepositions. About half of
them have two syllables (under, over, behind, without) or more (underneath,
notwithstanding).
Notice that many of these words show location (on, off, behind, under, etc.), some show
time (before, after), while others show less concrete relationships (of, for, to, with).
SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS
aboard
about
above
across
after
against
along
alongside
amid
amidst
among
around
as
at
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
besides
between
beyond
but
by
concerning
despite
down
during
except
far from
for
from
in
inside
into
like
near
of
off
on
onto
opposite
out
outside
over
past
per
round
since
through
throughout
till
to
toward
towards
under
underneath
until
unto
up
upon
via
with
within
without
COMPOUND PREPOSITIONS
according to
ahead of
as far as
as opposed to
as to
at that point in time
at this point in time
back from
back to
because of
by means of
by reason of
by virtue of
close to
contrary to
due to
during the course of
for the purposes of
for the reason that
from the point of view of
in a manner similar to
in accordance with
in addition to
in back of
in case of
in close proximity with
in excess of
in favor of
in front of
in lieu of
in light of
in order to
in receipt of
in regard to
in relation to
in routine fashion
in spite of
in terms of
in the event that
in the immediate vicinity of
in the nature of
inasmuch as
instead of
near to
next to
on behalf of
on the basis of
on top of
out of
prior to
pursuant to
similar to
subsequent to
up to
with a view to
with reference to
with regard to
with respect to
12
MOST COMMON PREPOSITIONS
These are the 9 most frequently used prepositions:
at
by
for
from
in
of
on
to
with
However, this grouping is somewhat misleading, because each form has multiple
meanings and functions.
13
POSITIONING
The position of the preposition can vary depending on whether its use is formal or
informal.
Simple Prepositional Phrase:
Formal: At what are you looking?
Informal: What are you looking at?
In Adjective Clause:
Formal: I will paint the chair in which I’m sitting.
Informal: I will paint the chair I’m sitting in.
In Relative Clause:
Formal: I know the place about which you spoke.
Informal: I know the place you spoke about.
14
There was controversy at one time regarding this positioning. Things have changed in
more recent times.
15
WHY FOCUS ON PREPOSITIONS?
1. Ideas conveyed by prepositions are very important.
He ran to the bus.
vs.
He ran from the bus.
2. Language learners often put a “marker” in place of the word.
They know something must go there.
He ran ‘uh’ the corner.
3. There are strong and weak forms in pronunciation that can be missed.
Examples of some weak forms:
I came fr\m Texas wit my cousin.
I’ll take four \ those cookies.
I went t\ Chicago last weekend.
4. And…mistakes are even made by native English speakers.
•
up to high school age teenagers
•
heard on TV news: “There are people accused with these crimes.”
16
“WITH WHOM” DO THE PREPOSITIONS HANG OUT?
Many English verbs and adjectives occur with one and only one preposition. Such prepositions
must be learned as an integral part of the verb or adjective (as part of the lexical unit).
Here are several lists:
Verb + Preposition Combinations
17
Adjective + Preposition Combination
18
Adjective + Preposition Combination
19
Preposition + Noun Combinations
20
WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS?
Verb
+
DIFFERENT Prepositions
=
DIFFERENT Meaning
Sometimes the same verb with two different prepositions will have significantly different
meanings.
Verb
provide for
provide with
You should provide for your old age now. (make provisions for)
The Red Cross provided us with blankets. (gave blankets to us)
argue about
argue with
We argued about politics. (topic)
We argued with the professor. (participant)
+
DIFFERENT Prepositions
=
SAME Meaning
Sometimes two different prepositions can be used with the same verb with little or no change of
meaning.
compete with
compete against
Verb
+
Joe competes with his older brother too much.
Joe competes against his older brother too much.
SAME Prepositions
=
DIFFERENT Meaning
Sometimes the same preposition can have two different meanings.
I bought the gift for Mary. (I bought a gift and gave it to Mary for her birthday.)
I bought the gift for Mary. (Mary didn’t have time to buy a gift. She asked me to do her a
favor, so I bought it for her, and then she gave it to her friend
for her friend’s birthday.)
He robbed the bank with a gun.
He robbed the bank with his brother.
(instrument)
(participant)
21
There are some prepositions that co-occur
from…to
(distance range, time range, or range of degree)
Bill walked from the bus stop to the liquor store.
from… until/till
(time range only)
Class is from 8 till 10.
out of…into
(change of enclosure or state)
We got out of the car and into the van.
off (of)…on (to)
(change of location with verbs like take and put)
Take off your coat and put on your sweater.
***
The prepositions out, over, and to a certain extent under, have formed numerous verb
compounds, some of which are frequent and common vocabulary items in English.
out + V
outdo
outrun
outlast
outgrow
over + V
overdo
overrate
overeat
overcome
under + V
underestimate
underrate
underline
underscore
similar meanings
similar meanings
22
ERRORS ERRORS ERRORS
($#@*& Prepositions!)
Non-native speakers of English tend to have three types of problems with prepositions:
1. Using the wrong preposition, e.g.:
*My grandfather picked the name on me. (for)
2. Omitting a required preposition, e.g.:
*I served the Army until 1964. (in)
^
3. Using a superfluous preposition, e.g.:
*I studied in Biology for three years.
* * *
Many errors occur with the prepositions in, on, and at. These prepositions, all associated with
temporal and spatial relationships, are easily confused.
1. Spatial meanings of in, on, at:
John is standing on the sidewalk.
(two-dimensional)
John is in the house. (three-dimensional)
John is at the corner. (one-dimensional:
point/intersection)
John is at the door/window. (in the general
area)
2. Temporal meanings of in, on, at:
It happened in 1960.
(for months, seasons, years, and periods of the day–including
the morning, evening, afternoon)
It happened on Dec. 10. (for dates and days of the week)
It happened at 9:15.
(for times of the day–includes noon, midnight, night, dawn,
dusk, sunrise, and sunset.)
23
3. Source meanings of from and (out) of:
Paper is made from wood. (source not
visibly obvious)
This table is made (out) of wood.
(source not visibly obvious)
4. Temporal use of in/within (not the contrast:
Come back in 30 minutes. (30 minutes
from now)
Come back within 30 minutes.
(refers to duration of span)
5. Since/for to express spans of time:
I have lived here since 1960. (refers to
beginning of span)
I have lived here for 16 years.
(refers to duration of span)
24
NATIVE LANGUAGE INTERFERENCE
Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian
English: for
Usual translation: za
Thanks for everything.
(na ordinarily mean on)
Hvala na svemu.
English: on
Usual translation: na
That depends on you.
(od ordinarily means from)
To zavisi od vas.
English: from
Usual translation: od
He’s coming from the station.
(sa ordinarily mean with)
Dolazi sa stanice.
German
English: to
Usual translation: zu
Welcome to America.
(in ordinarily means in)
Willkommen in Amerika.
English: on
Usual translation: auf
That depends on you.
(von ordinarily means of)
Das hängt von dir ab
French
English: for
Usual translation: pour
Thanks for your message.
(de ordinarily means of)
Merci de votre message
English: on
Usual translation: sur
It depends on you.
(de ordinarily means of)
Cela dépend de vous.
25
Spanish
English: at
Usual translation: a
I laughed at the program.
(de ordinarily mean of)
Me reí del programa.
English: for
Usual translation: with
I looked for my keys.
NO PREPOSITION USED IN SPANISH
Busqué mis llaves.
English: none
No translation needed
I leave home early every day.
NO PREPOSITION USED IN ENGLISH
Salgo de la casa temprano todos los días.
26
SIDEBAR FOR PHRASAL VERBS
Phrasal verbs do not have prepositions, they have particles.
Notes
A phrasal verb (also called a two-part or twoword verb) consists of a verb + particle
Examples
Let’s figure out this problem now.
Verb + Particle = Phrasal Verb
Particles and prepositions look the same.
However, particles are part of the verb phrase,
and they often change the meaning of the verb.
Ho called in a consultant.
She’s looking up at the roof.
(She’s looking in the direction of the
roof).
She’s looking up the word.
(She’s searching for the word in the
dictionary.)
The verb and particle are usually common
words, but their separate meanings may not
help one to guess the meaning of the phrasal
verb.
PHRASAL VERB
set up
catch up
put up
MEANING
establish
become popular
erect
NOTE: Phrasal verbs are much more common
in everyday speech than their one-word
equivalents. Like other verbs, phrasal verbs
often have more than one meaning.
They set up a business last year.
It didn’t catch on right away.
They put up a new entrance.
We’re putting up signs for our business.
NOT We’re erecting signs…
Please turn down the radio. The music is too
loud.
(Please lower the volume.)
Bill didn’t get the job. They turned down his
application.
(They rejected his application.)
Many phrasal verbs are transitive.
(The take a direct object.)
PHRASAL VERB
pick out something
call up someone
lay out something
MEANING
select
phone
spend
Pick out the chair you like best.
Call up the consultant.
Mr. Ho laid out a fortune.
27
Most transitive phrasal verbs are separable.
This means that a noun object can go…
a. after the particle
They tore down the entrance.
OR
b. between the verb and the particle.
Notice that when the noun object is part of a
long phrase, we do not separate the phrasal
verb.
They tore the entrance down.
Ho tried out the complex theories of feng shui.
NOT Ho tried the complex theories of feng
shui out.
I didn’t understand the word so I looked it up
NOTE: If the direct object is a pronoun, it must in the dictionary.
NOT I looked up it.
go between the verb and the particle.
Some phrasal verbs are intransitive.
(They do not take an object.)
PHRASAL VERB
catch on
sit down
MEANING
become popular
take a seat
Feng shui has caught on all over.
Sit down over there.
There are very few non-Germanic languages that have phrasal verbs. Thus most nonnative speakers usually find such verbs strange and difficult. Yet they are such an
important part of colloquial English that no one can speak or understand
conversational or informal English easily without a knowledge or phrasal verbs.
Some non-native speakers have a tendency to overuse single lexical items (single
words) in informal contexts where a phrasal verb would be much more appropriate,
e.g.:
Question: Do you need an ashtray?
a. Answer: Yes, I want to extinguish my cigarette.
b. Answer: Yes, I want to put out my cigarette.
Response a sounds pedantic and awkward to native speakers since the single lexical
item is formal and the context is informal. The phrasal verb equivalent given in b
would thus be much more appropriate.
28
29
30
31
Phrasal Verbs using “up”
(sth = something
act up
add up
add up to sth
ante up
back up
bang sb/sth up
bear up
beat up
beef sth up
belly up to sth
blot sth up
blow up
board sth up
boil up
bone up on sth
bottle sth up
break up
bring up
brush up (on) sth
buck up
build up
build up to sth
bulk up
bump sth up
burn up
bust up
butter sb up
buy up sth
call up
camp sth up
carve sth up
catch up
catch up on sth
catch up with sb
chalk sth up
check up on sb/sth
cheer up
chew sb/sth up
choke up
churn up
clam up
clean up
clear up
clock up sth
close up
cloud up
come up
sb = somebody)
come up against sth/sb
come up for sth
come up on sth
come up with sth
conjure sth up
cook sth up
coop sb/sth up
cough up
cover up
crack up
creep up on sb/sth
crop up
cuddle up
curl up
cut up
dam sth up
deliver sth up
dig sth up
dish sth up
divvy sth up
do up
doll sb up
double up
drag sth up
draw up
dream sth up
dredge sth up
dress up
drink sth up
drive sth up
drum sth up
dry up
dummy up
ease up
eat up
end up
face up to sth
fatten sb/sth up
feed sb up
feel sb up
feel up to sth
‘fess up
fill up
fire sth/sb up
firm sth up
fix up
flub up
follow up
foul up
freshen up
fuck up
gang up on sb
gas sth up
gear up
get up
giddy up
give up
give up on sb/sth
go up
goof up
grow up
gum sth up
gussy sb/sth up
hang up
heat up
hike sth up
hit sb up for sth
hitch sth up
hold up
hold sb/sth up as sth
hole up
hook up with sb
hurry up
hush sth up
jack sb/sth up
jazz sth up
join up
join up with sb/sth
juice sth up
keep up
kick up something
kiss up to sb
knock sb up
lap sth up
lay sb/sth up
lead up to sth
let up
lick sth up
light up
limber up
line up
link up
listen up
live up to sth
liven up
load up on sth
load sb (up) with sth
lock up
look up
look up to sb
loosen up
louse up
make up
make up for
mark sb/sth up
match up
measure up
meet up
mess up
mix up
mock sth up
mop up
move up
muck sth up
open up
own up
pack up
pair up
partner up
pass sth up
patch sth/sb up
pay up
pep sb/sth up
perk up
pick up
pick up on
pile up
pipe up
play sth up
play up to sb
point sth up
polish sth up
pony up
pop up
power sth up
prick up
prop sth up
psych sb/yourself up
puff up
pull up
pump sth up
32
pump sb up
put up
put sb up to sth
put up with sb/sth
rack sth up
rake sth up
ramp up
read up on sth
reckon sth up
render sth up
rev up
ride up
ring sth up
rip sth up
roll up
root sth up
rough sb up
round sb/sth up
run sth up
run up against sth/sb
rustle sth up
saddle up
scare sth up
scoop sth up
screw up
scrub up
seize up
send up
serve sth up
set up
settle up
sew sb/sth up
shack up
shake up
shape up
shoot up
shore sth up
show up
shut up
sign up
silt up
sit up
size sb/sth up
slip up
smash sth up
snap sb/sth up
snatch sth up
sneak up
soak sth up
sober up
soften sb/sth up
sop sth up
soup sth up
speak up
speed up
spit sth up
split up
spring up
spruce up
square up
stack up
stand up
stand up for sb/sth
stand up to sb/sth
start up
stay up
steam up
step up
stick up
stick up for sb
stink sth up
stir up
stitch sth up
stock up
stoke up
stop sth up
straighten up
strike up
string sth/sb up
suck up
sum up
swallow sb/sth up
sweep up
take up
take sb up on sth
take up with
tank up
tart up
team up
tear up
think sth up
throw up
tie up
tone sth/sb up
tool up
top sth up
tot sth up
total sth up
touch sth up
trade up
trip up
trump sth up
tune up
turn up
wad sth up
wait up
wake up
wake (up) to
wall sth up
warm up
warm up to
wash up
whip up
wind up
wipe sth up
wise up
work up
work up to sth
wrap up
write sth/sb up
yield sth up
zip up
33
SO, WHAT CAN NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS DO?
1. Be aware of the problem with prepositions (and phrasal verbs).
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Know about the
• grammatical structures
• complexities
• possible interference errors
2. Know the importance of prepositions (and phrasal verbs).
3. Focus on prepositions, think about them, and be pro-active in improving on them.
4. Use a dictionary and word-study aids (flash cards, these handouts, etc.)
5. They just have to be learned – one at a time or in groups.
For a short while after the conference, this handout will be available for free downloading
as a PDF document from my website: www.bobgrubic.com.
34
REFERENCES
Azar, Betty Schrampfer, Understanding and Using English Grammar, 2nd ed., Prentice
Hall Regents, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.
Celec-Murcia, Marianne and Larsen-Freeman, Diane, The Grammar Book, An ESL/EFL
Teacher’s Course, Newbury House Publishers, New York, NY, 1983.
Coghill, Jeffrey and Magedanz, Stacy, CliffsStudySolver English Grammar, Wiley
Publishing, Inc., New York, NY, 2003.
Crystal, David, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language, Cambridge
University Press, New York, NY, 1997.
Fernald, James Champlin, Funk & Wagnalls Standard Handbook of Synonyms,
Antonyms, and Prepositions, Funk & Wagnalls, New York, NY, 1947.
Fuchs, Marjorie and Bonner, Margaret, Focus on Grammar, a High-Intermediate Course
for Reference and Practice, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., White Plains, NY, 2000.
Funk and Wagnalls Standard Handbook of Prepositions, Conjunctions, Relative Pronouns
and Adverbs, Funk & Wagnalls, New York, NY, 1953.
Good, C. Edward, A Grammar Book for You and I, oops, Me!, Capital Books, Inc.,
Sterling, VA, 2002.
Pyles, Thomas and Algeo, John, The Origins and Development of the English Language,
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Fort Worth, TX,1993.
Woods, Geraldine, English Grammar for Dummies, Hungry Minds, Inc., New York, NY,
2001.
Yates, Jean, The Ins and Outs of Prepositions, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.,
Hauppauge, NY, 1999.
Answers to crossword puzzle on p. 5