Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

PREPOSITION ASSIGNMENT IN ENGLISH^287

2.3.3 Class three prepositions

Class three Prepositions — thus far labeled "adjunct" or "predicative" func­

tions — take the entire LS of the verb as one of their arguments, as in sen­

tence (35).

(35) a. John prayed before noon.

b. [before' (noon, [pray' (John)])]

In this LS (before' (x,y)), y = the event and χ = the reference time, on the

analogy of be-at' (x,y), where y = the located argument and χ = the loca­

tion. Predicative functions are divided into three sub-classes:

(a) Basic functions of at (momentary stage predicate) and via (inter­

val stage predicate) which are treated as primitives in the lexicon

and can be specified in the LS of an accomplishment verb, as in

(29);

(b) Sequential prepositions such as before, after, during/while^9 which

specify either an NP or a clausal situation, as illustrated in (35)

and (36) and which, like statives and activities, are treated as

primitives in the lexicon (see the specifications of before' and

pray' as atomic primitives in the LS in (36b));

(36) a. John prayed before his in-laws arrived.

b. [before'([arrive'(in-laws)], [pray' (John)])]

(c) Causatives such as for whose LSs encompass non-predicative

usages.

Class three prepositions — apart from the basic functions — are based

on semantic clause-linkage relations, as defined in the FVV Interclausal

Semantic Relations Hierarchy (ISRH) (269-270). (See also "Synopsis",

sect. 6.3, Van Valin & Wilkins, this volume.) That is, the semantic relation

between John prayed and before noon is the same in (35) as that between

John prayed and before his in-laws arrived in (36). The semantic relation in

constructions like (36) is clearly an interclausal semantic relation; and the

same semantic relation can be attributed to (35) as well, thus obviating the

need for any kind of clause-internal temporal thematic relation. The ISRH

sets up a cline of semantic relations from strongest to weakest linkage,

where causative represents the strongest linkage, as shown in Figure 1.

Thus, the semantic structures of predicative functions are defined by the

independently motivated clause-linkage relationships of the ISRH which

they instantiate.