Tom dived in to the water. As a result: Tom was in the water.
Further discussion below will explain existing theories about prepositions of place at, in and on and their uses. However, complex prepositions like in spite
of and in view of will not be disscussed.
1. Preposition of place ‘at’
The function of preposition of place at, according to Spit Corder 1979, p.107 is to show an exact point. R. A. Close states that the other functions of at
are to show the same position without specifying dimension. In other words, He says that the preposition of place at has the idea of stationary relationship with an
unspecified dimension 1962, p.142. There are many uses of the preposition of place according to its functions.
Raymond Murphy 1990, p.328 gives some examples of the uses of the preposition of place at, which is used to show the exact points, as follows:
The preposition of place at is used a. when someone is at an event or exact time, e.g.:
• at a conference • at a football match
• at a party The uses in sentences are
• She met the headmaster at a conference. • I saw jack at the football match on Sunday.
• There were many people at the party. b. to show an exact place or location, for example;
• at the royal festival hall • at the cinema at the theatre
• at the company’s headquarter • at the national museum
Picture 2.
_________ at
the top of the page
_______________ _______________
_______________
at the bottom of the page
Picture 3.
X at
the end of the street
The uses in the sentences are: • We went to a concert at the royal festival Hall.
• They were at the national Museum last Sunday. • Write your name at the top of the page.
• Write the mark at the bottom of the page. • Jack’s house is the white one at the end of the street.
c. when a town or village is a point on a journey, for example: • Do you know if this train stops at Nottingham?
• We stop at a pretty village on the way to London. The use of the preposition of place at that has an idea of stationery
relationship with unspecified dimension is shown in the following examples: - at the bus stop
- at the door - at the window
The uses in the sentences are - The man is at the bus stop.
- He is standing at the door. - She is sitting at the window.
These sentences suggest that the subjects occupy more or less the same position as the indicated places without specifying dimensions.
Beside the two functions above there are some expressions requiring preposition of place at such as:
- at home - at university
- at work - at school
- at the seaside - at someone’s house
- at a station - at an airport
- at the north pole
The uses in the sentences are - I’ll be back at work until 5.30 but I’ll be at home all evening.
- Julia is studying medicine at university. - We’ll be arriving at 9.30. Can you meet us at the station?
- I was at Tom’s house last night. Corder 1979, p.108 says that the prepositions of place at is also used
with certain verbs, such as aim at, laugh at, throw at, look at, arrive at. For example:
- Throw a stone at the fierce dog. - He looked at me.
The verb point can be followed by either preposition at or to. The contrast between a point at and point to is shown in the example below Close, 1977.
- He pointed at the brown house the same as aim at. “Point at suggest an exact place and can be followed by human subject or
object and inanimate subject or object. - He pointed to the trees.
“Point to” suggest in the direction of the trees. Corder also introduces principal collocation with the preposition of place
at . A collocation means a group of words frequently found together. It often has a
meaning that cannot be easily understood even if the meaning of each word in the group is known Corder, 1979: 112. Here are the lists of principle of collocation
with at: At work
means at one’s place of employment
At home means stay in the house
At church means inside the church
At sea means on a ship
At school means stay in the building school to learn
At hand means near by
2. Preposition of place ‘in’
