Prepositions meaningless x meaningful ?

Question

Tho what extent can we consider prepositions meaningless? And to what extend can we consider them meaningful? Do you know the answer to this?? ;^)

Miriam · Accepted Answer

Hi again, Lupa

Certain word categories (such as prepositions, articles and conjunctions among others) are called "function" or "structure" words, as opposed to "content" words (nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, adverbs).

Some grammarians say that "function" words convey no meaning (on their own). They see these words as being different from nouns, adjectives, adverbs, in the sense that if you say, for example, "table", or "small", you can get a mental picture of the concept represented those words. The table may be square or round, high or low, new or old, but you will still understand what a "table" is. The same happens with "small"; it will be something that is not large in size even when you know what that "something" is.
Other grammarians argue that, even when they do not carry full meaning in the same sense as a noun or an adjective will, it is not true that function words are "meaningless".

You mentioned prepositions. If you take, say, "at", you can distinguish its meaning from that of "of", "on" and other prepositions, even if you see the word in isolation, and even when you cannot say what its exact meaning will be unless you see, or use, the word in context. It is true, however, that they don't carry "full" meaning as a noun or a verb does.

The function of "function" and "content" words in discourse is different, but both are needed for producing a meaningful piece of discourse and for achieving effective communication.

I'm not a grammarian myself, so it would be pretentious on my part to discuss this as if I had enough knowledge. However, in my opinion, prepositions (and function words in general) cannot be said to be completely void of meaning.

Miriam

Prepositions meaningless x meaningful ?

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