# Over Under Sideways Down!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [July 9, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865 "2008-07-09T17:47:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/1 "2008-07-09T17:47:16Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/2 "2008-07-09T18:07:49Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/3 "2008-07-09T18:18:27Z")
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!
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/4 "2008-07-09T19:46:25Z")
What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/5 "2008-07-09T20:03:30Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm]
What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?
[/QUOTE]
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!
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/6 "2008-07-09T21:15:57Z")
[QUOTE=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.
[/QUOTE]
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.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/7 "2008-07-09T23:25:12Z")
[QUOTE=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. 😉
[/QUOTE]
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.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/8 "2008-07-09T23:46:55Z")
[QUOTE=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.
[/QUOTE]
“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.
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### Author:  [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/9 "2008-07-10T00:30:39Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm]
What did you bring that book that I didn’t want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?
[/QUOTE]
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!
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/10 "2008-07-10T00:35:25Z")
[QUOTE=brujaja]
I am giddy as a schoolboy!
[/QUOTE]
But…are you beside yourself? 😃
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### Author:  [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/11 "2008-07-10T03:11:04Z")
“Conjunction junction… what’s your function!”
…Shut up, it’s the only part I remember from that song.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/12 "2008-07-10T04:01:00Z")
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]
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### Author:  [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/13 "2008-07-10T13:40:44Z")
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…
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### Author:  [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/14 "2008-07-10T13:43:28Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
“During” is a preposition (check your dictionary); it just applies to events, not objects. Same way the cat can’t sit under Monday.
[/QUOTE]
Reminds me of a _Wizard of Id_ strip:
GWEN: “What sign were you born under?”
BUNG: “Gunther’s Bar and Grill”
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/15 "2008-07-10T14:47:50Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
Reminds me of a _Wizard of Id_ strip:
GWEN: “What sign were you born under?”
BUNG: “Gunther’s Bar and Grill”
[/QUOTE]
And let’s not forget Winnie-the-Pooh, who lived under the name of Sanders . . .
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/16 "2008-07-10T20:45:23Z")
> [@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** )
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/17 "2008-07-11T02:08:20Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
The cat/chair thing is really an oversimplification.
[/QUOTE]
But it’s a doozy.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-under-sideways-down/455865/18 "2008-07-11T02:43:57Z")
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** )