Prepositional Phrases

The Preposition Phrase (PP) The distribution of the preposition phrase A PP can occur in the following diagnostic environments: Chris put the book __. The squirrel ran straight/right __. inside an NP, following the noun, i.e. in [NP: ... N __]: The book about Canada A PP can often be substituted with an adverbial pro-form there, then. In a constituent question test for a PP, the question starts with where, how, why, ... The internal structure of the preposition phrase A PP must contain a preposition (in, from, in spite of, by, ...) a major phrase following the preposition, usually an NP (from [NP: Canada], to [NP: Kim]), but other phrases are also possible (from [PP: inside the building]). A PP may contain a degree word preceding the preposition (straight across the street) If the preposition is used as a case marking preposition, i.e. as semantically vacuous, then the PP may not contain a degree word. Kim put the book [PP: right into the shelf] Kim gave the book [PP: to Sandy]

• Kim gave the book [PP: right to Sandy]

Example 1: A PP with an NP

        _PP_
       /    \
      /    _NP_
     P    /    \
     |   /______\
   about the match