Prepositional Phrase Types of Post-noun Modification and its pattern
24 3
BY + NOUN + OF e.g., by means of, by way of, by virtue of, by dint of, etc.
4 ON + NOUN + OF
e.g., on account of, on behalf of, on top of, on pain of, on strength of, etc. 5
OTHER TYPES e.g., at variance with, in exchange for, in return for, in addition to, in relation
to, with respect to, at the hands of, etc. As one of post-noun modifications, a prepositional phrase helps to identify
a noun or pronoun and demonstrate the recursiveness of the language. It means the embedding of one structure in another of the same kind: a clause within a
clause, a noun phrase within a noun phrase, a verb phrase within a verb phrase Kolln Funk, 2012, p.136. To gain clear information of the embedding of noun
phrase, Kolln Funk 2012 provided the illustration with the pattern Det + Noun + PP, as follows Kolln Funk, 2012, p.136:
NP N
Det PP
NP PREP
in the
shop building
the Det
N
near PP
PREP
the park
NP Det
N
25 As described in that phrase structure, the noun headword is followed by
prepositional phrase which it is also expanded. Dwijatmoko in English Syntax states that a prepositional phrase in a noun
phrase structure can be functioned as a complement and an adjunct 2002, pp.10- 15. When a noun takes a PP as its complement, the preposition which heads the
PP is fixed. It is indicated to the sample sentences below. 16
their demand on good governance
17
his knowledge of English grammar In sentence 16, the noun headword, demand, is followed by fixed
preposition on. Meanwhile, in sentence 17, the noun headword, knowledge, is
followed by fixed preposition of. For both fixed preposition on in the sentence 16 and of in the sentence 17 cannot be replaced with other prepositions due to
there are some prepositions which follow particular nouns as objects or complements Jackson, 1982, p.81. It is indicated that the relationship between a
head with its complement is close. In addition, a complement is needed by a head because it shows the semantic object of the corresponding verb of the head
Dwijatmoko, 2002, p.12. Furthermore, Dwijatmoko emphasizes that an adjunct is used to give the
characteristic of a noun head, and occurs after the head 2002, p.15, as indicated to sample sentences below Quirk et al., 1972, p.1274.
18
a man from the electricity company
26 It is clear that the preposition phrase of sentence 18, from the electricity
company, provides the characteristic of the noun headword, man. Thus, it
becomes distinctive who the man is talking about. Leech Svartvik in A Communicative Grammar of English also
emphasize that prepositional phrase are by far the common type of post-noun modifier in English 1994, p.345. It is in accordance with Quirk et al. that
prepositional phrase is three or four times more frequent than either finite or non- finite clausal post-modification 1972, p.883. It can often be expanded to relative
clauses, as indicated to the following examples Leech Svartvik, 1994, p.345: 19
Is this the ROAD to Paris? ‘Is this the road that leads to Paris?’ 20
These economic ACTIONS far beyond the normal citizen’s control. ‘…actions which are far beyond…’
In addition, Aarts Aarts state that a noun phrase may contain two or more prepositional phrase 1982, p.114, as described below:
21 the book on archaeology by Professor Smith
22 the house at the corner of the street
Generally, there is no difference between those sentences. Either the noun phrase of sentence 21 or 22 are followed by two prepositional phrases. However,
according to the syntactic structure, they are different. In sentence 21, it can be interpreted that the second prepositional phrase modifies either the noun
headword or the first prepositional phrase. To gain clear information about this, the diagram of the syntactic structure is provided as follows:
27
Through the diagram, it is obvious that the second prepositional phrase, by Professor Smith
, used to modify noun phrase, the book on archaeology. Unlike in
sentence 21, the second prepositional phrase in sentence 22 only modifies the NP of the first prepositional phrase. Thus, the diagram would be presented that the
second prepositional phrase, of the street, modifies only the NP of first prepositional, the corner, as follows: