Chapter 1 - Grammatical Foundations: WordsFinally, we turn to non-thematic non-functional prepositions. There are elements
which appear to be prepositions, but which do not play a role in the thematic structure
of the clause. For example, we have introduced the use of the preposition of in
situations such as the following:
(196) a a picture of Mary
b fond of his grandmother
As we pointed out, nouns and adjectives seem not to be able to take nominal
complements and hence the preposition of is inserted so that the complement is
prepositional instead. This preposition plays no role in the thematic interpretation of
these constructions however, the thematic relations hold between the noun or the
adjective and the following nominal element. Another such preposition is the by which
is found in passive clauses:
(197) a Peter hit the policeman the policeman was hit by Peter
b Lucy received a letter a letter was received by Lucy
Note that in the passive structures the nominal following by is interpreted the same as
the nominal preceding the verb in the active. It is, of course, the verb which determines
how to interpret this nominal, agent in (197a) and recipient in (197b), and hence,
presumably, the verb which determines it in the passive examples. If this is so, then by
plays no role in the thematic interpretation as this is entirely determined by the verb.
However, these prepositional elements, though apparently non-thematic, are not
complementisers, as they do not introduce clauses. We therefore categorise them as
prepositions which are unmarked for the F feature. Thus, they are non-thematic, but
also non-functional prepositions, categorised as [–N, –V]. Like most prepositional
elements they take nominal complements:
(198) of category: [–N, –V]
subcat: [nominal]
by category: [–N, –V]
subcat: [nominal]
This concludes our typology of word categories. Although it has not been
exhaustive, as there are one or two categories that we have not discussed (conjunctions
such as and and or for example), we have covered all of the categories that we will be
concerned with in the rest of this book and nearly all of those made use of in the
English language. How to include those we have not dealt with within the system we
have developed is not something we will touch on in this book.