Chapter 151

ON PREPOSITIONS.

§ 501. All prepositions govern an oblique case. If a word ceases to do this, it ceases to be a preposition. In the first of the two following sentences the word _up_ is a preposition, in the second an adverb.

1. _I climbed up the tree._ 2. _I climbed up._

All prepositions in English, precede the noun which they govern. _I climbed up the tree_, never _I climbed the tree up_. This is a matter not of government, but of collocation. It is the case in most languages; and, from the frequency of its occurrence, the term _pre-position_ (or _pre-fix_) has originated. Nevertheless, it is by no means a philological necessity. In many languages the prepositions are_ post-positive_, following their noun.

§ 502. No preposition, in the present English, governs a genitive case. This remark is made, because expressions like the _part of the body = pars corporis,--a piece of the bread = portio panis_, make it appear as if the preposition _of_ did so. The true expression is, that the preposition _of_ followed by an objective case is equivalent in many instances, to the genitive case of the classical languages.

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