Exercises 147an NP. If by means of were really a single preposition, we wouldn't expect to be able
to insert similar after the first part of it and drop the last part to get by similar means.
Changes of this kind are not possible in [40ii], where the degree of fossilisation
is greater. A case can be made for treating the first two words as forming a unit that
takes the remainder as its complement. In fro nt of the car, for example, will have a
unitary preposition in front as head, and of the car will be its complement.
That, however, is very different from taking in front of as a whole as a complex
preposition. The of in infront of the car actually belongs with the car, not with the
head in front. This is evident from the fact that if we omit the car when it is retriev
able from the context, we must also drop the of Compare, for example:
[43] i a. She stood infront of the car.
ii a. She stood behind the car.b. She stood in front.
b. She stood behind.You can't say *She stood in fro nt of From a syntactic point of view, therefore, it is
clearly not in front of that behaves like behind, but just in front; it differs from
behind in that it takes an optional complement with of, rather than an NP.
The same general point applies to the second preposition in the other sequences
in [40ii].
Take in league with. We can have The two of them are in league with the devil or
just The two of them are in league (understood as "in league with each other").
This shows that from a syntactic point of view with belongs in the first instance
with the following NP, not with league.
In by virtue of her age we cannot omit of her age, but we can still show that of
forms a pp with her age. One piece of evidence is that the of can be repeated in
coordination, as in by virtue other age and other ta mily commitments. The coor
dinator and here is linking the two constituents that are underlined. They are PPs.
And that means by virtue of is not a preposition, not a syntactic unit of any sort.Exercises- For each of the following sentences (all
from the opening pages of Mary Shelley's
novel Frankenstein), underline the
complement of the doubly underlined
preposition -all the words that make up
the complement, but no other words. In each
case give the category of the complement.
i What may not be expected i!!: a
country of etemallight?
ii Six years have passed since I resolved
on my present undertaking.
iii I commenced l2J! inuring my body to
hardship.iv My life might have been passed i!!:
ease and luxury.
v They fly quickly over the snow in their
sledges.- List ten word sequences other than the
ones discussed in this chapter that are
standardly described (or could plausibly
be taken) as 'complex prepositions'.
Provide evidence for their degree of
fossilisation, classifying them as less
fossilised (like the cases in [40i] of this
chapter, e.g., by means of) or more
fossilised (like those in [40ii]).