English Prepositions Explained

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This resource is designed for both non-native and native English speakers, catering to teachers, translators, materials writers, and advanced students. It offers unique insights into English prepositions not found in any other current publication. Complementing The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations, it provides a thorough exploration of prepositional collocations. The book functions like a grammar handbook, detailing the usage of prepositions and directional adverbs while addressing key questions: What meanings does each preposition convey? How are these meanings interconnected? What distinguishes idiomatic usages from systematic meanings? It also explores major semantic families of prepositions, their boundaries, and the nuances different prepositions bring to similar contexts. Additionally, it examines the role of metaphor and the nature of phrasal verbs in relation to systematic meanings. Richly illustrated with examples, this explanatory approach sets it apart as a valuable tool for creative writing. Covering over seventy prepositions, primarily spatial and temporal, it reveals a remarkable systematicity. The content is organized into twenty-three chapters, including an overview of grammar and semantics, detailed discussions on families of prepositions, a chapter on phrasal verbs, and a summary of key abstract concepts. The book is fully indexed and features a glossary and annotated bibliography.