Over Under Sideways Down!

[brujaja]

I love prepositions! I love to play with prepositions!

A house can burn up and burn down at the same time. You can come over, come up, come down, come across, come back, come forth, come to, come from, come by… and they all mean different things!

You can double them up! You can string them like beads! You can directly contradict yourself and still make sense!

Don’t lower yourself by rising above something that’s beneath you! If you’re on the outs you can get an in, if you’re on the up-and-up. It was far and away the back of beyond, but that’s neither here nor there.

Hee hee hee! I love prepositions!

That is all.

[Sunspace]

After I started studying a second language, I learned that many of these are actually “phrasal verbs”. “Give” is a verb. “Give in”, “give out”, “give up” and “give over” are different phrasal verbs with different meanings. I’m not sure whether the “up” in “give up”, for example, is really acting as a preposition any more. Doesn’t a preposition introduce something else? It may be a case, though, where English does not fit the descriptive formalism that “preposition” implies.

[brujaja]

Oh, you’re probably right. As much of a word fiend as I am, I still get confused trying to parse modifiers past a certain point. Split infinitives, dangling participles, gerunds. Great spangled fritillaries. Dipthong, billabong, glottal stop. Hee hee!

[Robot_Arm]

What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?

[Scarlett67]

@Robot Arm

What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?

You left out a few:

What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up from below for?

---

This is the sort of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put!

[WhyNot]

@Sunspace

After I started studying a second language, I learned that many of these are actually “phrasal verbs”. “Give” is a verb. “Give in”, “give out”, “give up” and “give over” are different phrasal verbs with different meanings. I’m not sure whether the “up” in “give up”, for example, is really acting as a preposition any more. Doesn’t a preposition introduce something else? It may be a case, though, where English does not fit the descriptive formalism that “preposition” implies.

I think you’re right. As I learned it, a preposition is anywhere a cat can be in relation to a chair.

Picture a chair and a cat. The cat can be behind, above, aft, in, on, off, on top of, under, upon, around, over, in front of, outside, against, 'twixt and 'tween, through, below, beyond, before, beside, beneath, underneath, in, out, inside, into, outside, within, broadside, astern, after, about, by, near or far. The cat can move from, to, toward, across, onto, out of, up to, or onto the chair. He can move along, among, around, through or past the chair.

If you take away his chair, he will be without his chair.
I really, really want a lolcat educational preposition poster now.

[Beware_of_Doug]

@WhyNot

I think you’re right. As I learned it, a preposition is anywhere a cat can be in relation to a chair.

Picture a chair and a cat. The cat can be behind, above, aft, in, on, off, on top of, under, upon, around, over, in front of, outside, against, 'twixt and 'tween, through, below, beyond, before, beside, beneath, underneath, in, out, inside, into, outside, within, broadside, astern, after, about, by, near or far. The cat can move from, to, toward, across, onto, out of, up to, or onto the chair. He can move along, among, around, through or past the chair.

If you take away his chair, he will be without his chair.

OK, if before and after are prepositions, why isn’t during?

A cat can be before a chair or after a chair, but he can’t be during a chair.

[Scarlett67]

@Beware of Doug

OK, if before and after are prepositions, why isn’t during?

A cat can be before a chair or after a chair, but he can’t be during a chair.

“During” is a preposition (check your dictionary); it just applies to events, not objects. Same way the cat can’t sit under Monday. Consider other nonpositional prepositions: than, as, but, despite, to name a few.

The cat/chair thing is really an oversimplification.

[brujaja]

@Robot Arm

What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?

Good one! Hee hee! Among, along, atop, upon. Beneath, beside, between, beyond. Alongside. Aforegone. Hitherto. Hither, thither, and yon.

I am giddy as a schoolboy!

[WhyNot]

@brujaja

I am giddy as a schoolboy!

But…are you beside yourself?

[Kythereia]

“Conjunction junction… what’s your function!”

…Shut up, it’s the only part I remember from that song.

[Sunspace]

Agghh!!! Now that song is stuck in my head! (And you know I get all the cartoons as well…) Thanks, Kyth!

[sub]I won’t be able to get rid of it until I pass it on…[/sub]

[TheLoadedDog]

To stand up isn’t usually the opposite of to stand down. Same with stand in and stand out. Then there’s stand for, stand over, stand under, stand aside, stand off, stand to, stand around…

[TheLoadedDog]

@Scarlett67

“During” is a preposition (check your dictionary); it just applies to events, not objects. Same way the cat can’t sit under Monday.

Reminds me of a Wizard of Id strip:

GWEN: “What sign were you born under?”

BUNG: “Gunther’s Bar and Grill”

[Scarlett67]

@TheLoadedDog

Reminds me of a Wizard of Id strip:

GWEN: “What sign were you born under?”

BUNG: “Gunther’s Bar and Grill”

And let’s not forget Winnie-the-Pooh, who lived under the name of Sanders . . .

[rowrrbazzle]

@Scarlett67

You left out a few:

What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up from below for?

Two more:

Will you get your explanation of what you brought that book I don’t like to be read to out of about Down Under up for over with? (cribbed from Malacandra)

[Beware_of_Doug]

@Scarlett67

The cat/chair thing is really an oversimplification.

But it’s a doozy.

[Sunspace]

You will get your explanation of what you brought that book I don’t like to be read to out of about Down Under up for over with when?
(cribbed from Malacandra via rowrrbazzle)