Inflected preposition
Encyclopedia
In some languages, an inflected preposition, or conjugated preposition, is a word formed from the contraction
of a preposition with a personal pronoun
. For instance, in Scottish Gaelic, to say "before him," one can not say *, but (/rɔʲə/), which historically developed from a fusion of pronoun and preposition. Conjugated prepositions are commonly reanalysed as inflected words by native speakers and by traditional grammar.
Inflected prepositions are found in the Insular Celtic languages
(Scottish Gaelic, Irish
, Manx
, Welsh
, Cornish
and Breton
) and in many Semitic languages
including Hebrew ( li "to me") and Arabic.
Languages that do not have full paradigms of inflected prepositions may allow contraction of prepositions and pronouns to a more limited extent. In Polish
, for instance, a handful of common prepositions allow amalgamated forms (in formal registers) with 3rd person pronouns: ("on him/it") → . However, these contracted forms are very archaic and rarely heard in daily speech.
The term prepositional pronoun is also used sometimes for inflected preposition, but this may cause confusion with another sense of this expression. (See prepositional pronoun
.)
inflected prepositions can be found in the forms (with me), (with you, singular), (with him/her/itself) (see also Spanish prepositions#con).
In Portuguese
inflected prepositions can be found in the forms (with me), (with you, singular), (with him/her/itself), (with us), and (with you, plural).
In German
inflected prepositions occur in Ruhrdeutsch.
In Cornish
, the inflected forms of the preposition (with) are (with me), (with you, singular), (with him), (with her), (with us), (with you, plural), and or (with them).
In Arabic
, inflected prepositions are quite common. The preposition ''ˀalā (on) inflects as ''ˀalayya (on me), ''ˀalayka (on you[f]), ''ˀalayhi (on him) etc.
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
of a preposition with a personal pronoun
Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
. For instance, in Scottish Gaelic, to say "before him," one can not say *, but (/rɔʲə/), which historically developed from a fusion of pronoun and preposition. Conjugated prepositions are commonly reanalysed as inflected words by native speakers and by traditional grammar.
Inflected prepositions are found in the Insular Celtic languages
Insular Celtic languages
Insular Celtic languages are those Celtic languages that originated in the British Isles, in contrast to the Continental Celtic languages of mainland Europe and Anatolia. All surviving Celtic languages are from the Insular Celtic group; the Continental Celtic languages are extinct...
(Scottish Gaelic, Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, Manx
Manx language
Manx , also known as Manx Gaelic, and as the Manks language, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Only a small minority of the Island's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it...
, Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
and Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
) and in many Semitic languages
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
including Hebrew ( li "to me") and Arabic.
Languages that do not have full paradigms of inflected prepositions may allow contraction of prepositions and pronouns to a more limited extent. In Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, for instance, a handful of common prepositions allow amalgamated forms (in formal registers) with 3rd person pronouns: ("on him/it") → . However, these contracted forms are very archaic and rarely heard in daily speech.
The term prepositional pronoun is also used sometimes for inflected preposition, but this may cause confusion with another sense of this expression. (See prepositional pronoun
Prepositional pronoun
A prepositional pronoun is a special form of a personal pronoun that is used as the object of a preposition.English does not have distinct prepositional forms of pronouns. The same set of objective pronouns are used after verbs and prepositions...
.)
Examples
In SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
inflected prepositions can be found in the forms (with me), (with you, singular), (with him/her/itself) (see also Spanish prepositions#con).
In Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
inflected prepositions can be found in the forms (with me), (with you, singular), (with him/her/itself), (with us), and (with you, plural).
In German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
inflected prepositions occur in Ruhrdeutsch.
In Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
, the inflected forms of the preposition (with) are (with me), (with you, singular), (with him), (with her), (with us), (with you, plural), and or (with them).
In Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, inflected prepositions are quite common. The preposition ''ˀalā (on) inflects as ''ˀalayya (on me), ''ˀalayka (on you[f]), ''ˀalayhi (on him) etc.
Opaque fusional forms and historical change
Historical processes may mean that a conjugated preposition is difficult to relate to the associated preposition or pronoun in the later language. Another Scottish Gaelic example: "before you" is (/roət/) with the associated preposition and pronoun being (/rɔ/) and (/u/) respectively, a relationship which is not too obscure. However, "with him" and "with her" are /leʃ/ and /le-ə/ with /lɛ/ being the standalone preposition "with" and /ɛ/ and /i/ being the relevant pronouns in their standalone forms.See also
- Breton language: Grammar
- Arabic grammarArabic grammarArabic grammar is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages....
- Hebrew grammarHebrew grammar-History of studies in Hebrew grammar:The Masoretes in the 7th to 11th centuries laid the foundation for grammatical analysis of Hebrew. As early as the 9th century Judah ibn Kuraish discussed the relationship between Arabic and Hebrew...
- Irish morphologyIrish morphologyThis article discusses the grammar of the Irish language.The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. Nouns are declined for number and case, and verbs for person and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender...
- Portuguese personal pronouns
- Scottish Gaelic grammarScottish Gaelic grammarThis article describes the grammar of the Scottish Gaelic language.-Grammar overview:Gaelic shares with other Celtic languages a number of interesting typological features:...
- Welsh morphologyWelsh morphologyThe morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a...
- Hungarian noun phrases#Postpositions with personal suffixes
External links
- Examples of Irish prepositional pronouns
- Explanation of Scottish prepositional pronouns
- Prepositions with suffixes in Biblical Hebrew
- Prepositions with pronominal suffixes in Biblical Hebrew