science

Inflected preposition

Inflected preposition is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Inflected preposition rather than just read about it. In short: In linguistics, an inflected preposition is a type of word that occurs in some languages, that corresponds to the combination of a preposition and a personal pronoun. For instance, the Welsh word iddo (/ɪðɔ/) is an inflected form of the preposition i meaning "to/for him"; it would not be grammatically correct to say *i ef.

Key takeaways

Inflected preposition belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Inflected preposition to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Inflected preposition from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In linguistics, an inflected preposition is a type of word that occurs in some languages, that corresponds to the combination of a preposition and a personal pronoun. For instance, the Welsh word iddo (/ɪðɔ/) is an inflected form of the preposition i meaning "to/for him"; it would not be grammatically correct to say *i ef.

Terminology and analysis There are many different names for inflected prepositions, including conjugated preposition, pronominal preposition, prepositional pronoun, and suffixed pronoun. (But note that the term prepositional pronoun also has a different sense, for which see Prepositional pronoun.) Historically, inflected prepositions can develop from the contraction of a preposition with a personal pronoun; however, they are commonly reanalysed as inflected words by native speakers and by traditional grammar. Language change over time can obscure the similarity between the conjugated preposition and the preposition-pronoun combination. For example, in Scottish Gaelic "with" is le /lɛ/ and "him" is e /ɛ/, but "with him" is leis /leʃ/.

Distribution

Insular Celtic All Insular Celtic languages have inflected prepositions; these languages include Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

Scottish Gaelic The following table shows the inflected forms of the preposition aig 'at'. These forms are a combination of preposition and pronoun, and are obligatory; that is, the separate preposition plus pronoun *aig mi 'at me' is ungrammatical. Also no separate pronoun may also be given after these combined forms. So *agam mi is ungrammatical.

Welsh The following table shows the colloquial inflected forms of the preposition i 'to/for'. The optional pronouns that follow the inflected forms are given in parentheses.

The sentence Mae hi wedi ei roi iddo fo 'she has given it to him' required the inflected form of i, *mae hi wedi ei roi i fo is not grammatically correct. The following table gives the inflected colloquial forms of the preposition o 'of/from'. The optional pronouns that follow the inflected forms are given in parentheses.

Semitic Inflected prepositions are found in many Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Amharic. For example, the Arabic preposition على (/ʕalaː) 'on' inflects as علَيَّ (/ʕalajːa/) 'on me', علَيْكَ (/ʕalajka/) 'on you (M.SG)', علَيْهِ (/ʕalajhi/) 'on him', etc.

Iranic languages Some Iranic languages, including Persian, have developed inflected prepositions. For example, Persian az u 'from him/her' becomes azaš; bā šomā 'with you PL' becomes bāhātun. These forms are non-obligatory and are used especially in the colloquial register, though some of them are also possible in the standard language. As the two examples show, they are not mere contractions but a system of inflectional endings attached to the preposition.

Other languages Languages that do not have full paradigms of inflected prepositions may nonetheless allow contraction of prepositions and pronouns to a more limited extent. In formal registers of Polish, a handful of common prepositions allow amalgamated forms with third-person pronouns: na niego 'on him/it' → nań. These contracted forms were often recommended to use in formal writing. However, they are rarely heard in daily speech. In many Iberian Romance languages, such as Spanish and Portuguese, the preposition con or com 'with' has special forms incorporating certain pronouns (depending on the language). For example, in Spanish and Asturian conmigo means 'with me'. Historically, this developed from the Latin use of cum 'with' after a pronoun, as in mecum 'with me'.

Inflected postpositions As languages can make use of postpositions rather than prepositions, so do some languages have inflected postpositions. Bororo, an indigenous language of Brazil, uses postpositions in all contexts: tori ji 'about the mountains'. When these modify a pronoun rather than a full noun, the phrase contracts into an inflected postposition (and therefore looks like a pronominal prefix, rather than a suffix as in the examples above: bagai 'for', i-wagai 'for me'). Athabaskan languages such as Dakelh also have inflected postpositions. For example, in the Stuart Lake dialect "for (the benefit of)" is ba, but "for me" is sba, not si ba, "for us" is neba, not wheni ba, "for you (one person)" is mba, not nyun ba, and "for them" is buba, not 'enne ba.

See also Breton language: Grammar Arabic grammar Hebrew grammar Irish morphology Portuguese personal pronouns Scottish Gaelic grammar Hungarian noun phrases#Postpositions with personal suffixes

References

External links Examples of Irish prepositional pronouns Archived 2006-10-18 at the Wayback Machine Explanation of Scottish prepositional pronouns Prepositions with suffixes in Biblical Hebrew Prepositions with pronominal suffixes in Biblical Hebrew

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Inflected preposition

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Inflected preposition claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Inflected preposition before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Inflected preposition ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Inflected preposition

In research: Inflected preposition appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Inflected preposition in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Inflected preposition is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Linguistic morphology, Prepositions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Inflected preposition outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Inflected preposition in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Inflected preposition means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Inflected preposition out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Inflected preposition in simple terms?

Why does Inflected preposition matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Inflected preposition?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Inflected preposition.