Can a prepositional phrase serve as a subject?

Question

I was asked this question in chat, and honestly, I don't know the answer.

I came up with the example "For you to meet the king is a great honor" - but is "For you to meet the king" a true prepositional phrase? Just because it starts with a preposition , does that make it a prepositional phrase?

Thanks.

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi GG,

Yes, I think you can get into debate on what such a phrase is, and whether a preposition is being used as a preposition.

How about these? About five people came to the meeting. On Thursday sounds like a good time for a meeting. In the morning sounds like a good time for a meeting.

Clive

CalifJim · Answer

for you to meet the king is a for ... to ... clause. for is considered a complementizer in that context (according to some analytical methods), not a preposition.

But you can make a prepositional phrase a 'sort of' subject by pulling it to the beginning. The resulting sentences are 'pretty lame', however, and not all grammarians will likely agree that these phrases are true subjects, since the sentences can be analyzed as something like cleft transformations of an underlying sentence with a different 'true' subject.

In the office is where you'll find him. [You'll find him in the office.]
Before the war was when they met. [They met before the war.]
With great care was how they proceeded. [They proceeded with great care.]

Or you can cheat

To the Lighthouse is a novel by Virginia Woolf.
'Around the corner' is a prepositional phrase.

CJ

Philip · Answer

CalifJimfor you to meet the king is a for ... to ... clause. for is considered a complementizer in that context (according to some analytical methods), not a preposition.

Here it is, not even 7:00 a.m., and I'm already learning something new! Thanks, CJ.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Thank you all very much. I was really stumbling on this.

Barb

PS - Like Philip, I love how much I learn here myself. I wish when I'd chosen my name at the very beginning, I'd chosen more wisely: Grammar Wanna-Be-Geek

CalifJim · Answer

OK. Hang on to your hats. According to Radford (Transformational Grammar) there are four complementizers in English: two noninterrogative, two interrogative.

noninterrogative finite complementizer: that (I expect that he will agree.)
noninterrogative nonfinite complementizer: for (I'm anxious for you to agree.)
interrogative finite complementizer(s): if (I don't know if I should agree.) (whether can substitute for if in this class.)
interrogative nonfinite complementizer: whether (I don't know whether to agree.) (if cannot substitute for whether in this class.)

And try not to get up so early, Philip!

CJ

MrPedantic · Answer

("About five people" – not adverbial?)

CalifJim · Answer

about five people: about - adverb of degree.

And yet, as a preposition:

About five people is whom we talked.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

The subject of the sentence is actually an infinitive phrase "to meet." "For you" is a prepositional phrase, and, therefore, not the subject of the sentence. I was always taught that the true subject or verb in a sentence is never found within a prepositional phrase. Usually we do a study of verbals and verbal phrases that includes gerunds, participles and participial phrases, and infinitives. The infinitive "To meet" is comparable to the gerund "Meeting ...the king.."
Hope that helps.

MrPedantic · Answer

Thank you, Anon. I would call the whole phrase "To meet the king" the subject, as in this rearranged version:

1. To meet the king, for you, would be a great honour.

I wonder if this would be a prepositional subject:

2. "Do you want your oeufs en meurette with or without tarragon?" "With tarragon would be my preferred option, madame."

Best wishes,

MrP

CalifJim · Answer

MrPedanticI wonder if this would be a prepositional subject

Or is the real subject option in an inverted equative sentence?
My preferred option would be (the option) "with tarragon".
But we can leave that aside for a moment, because I think something else is going on under the surface.
While many examples can be made with a prepositional phrase occupying the position of a surface subject, I doubt that a prepositional phrase can ever be a subject. To become a subject it would have to relinquish its true predicative function and become a referring expression . A phrase like with tarragon, for example, refers to nothing in the real world. To interpret it as a subject requires our understanding it as referring to something. And that something has to be something linguistic in this case, namely, the words "with tarragon" previously uttered as a choice given the diner. Perhaps the idea can be more accurately expressed thus:
"With tarragon" would be my preferred option, madame.

meaning
Of the choices you have offered me, the choice represented by the words "with tarragon" would be my preferred option, madame.
Once the prepositional phrase is nominalized, is it still a prepositional phrase? Or is it just a phrase in quotes? Certainly your option isn't accompanied by tarragon, which is, I think, what is required for with tarragon to be used (as a prepositional phrase), rather than just mentioned (as a nominalized, quoted phrase), in the example sentence.
Still, if it is too irksome to deal with the philosophical niceties that distinguish mention from use, maybe we should just say that with tarragonis the subject and be done with it!

CJ

Can a prepositional phrase serve as a subject?

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