Week 5 (Feb5-11) - Prepositions

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Grammar Moves - PREPOSITIONS

     People usually wants to know where they are in certain places and time.  Prepositional words like "in," "at," "on," "during," "since," "inside," "outside," and "next" are valuable English words that help people to know when and where they can be in respect to time and place.  Even though prepositions are "usually small words," (Weinstein and Finn 18), they are important for many reasons. Prepositions help users to make connections to how "things relate to each other" (Weinstein and Finn 18), identify the purpose of "instrumentality" (Weinstein and Finn 18), and "connect the dots" (Weinstein and Finn 18).  Thus, prepositions do magical work. Without prepositional words like "to," "before," and "after," users may end up using a broken language. Descriptive grammar will become useful for them in this case because they do not focus on how the rules of how a language should be used like prescriptive "grammarians" who specialize and advocate for how a language should be used according to rules and principles. 

Look at the three scenarios below:

1) I go store.

A new language user or English language learner may naturally use that clause (I go store) thinking it is great and perfect sentence with syntax and semantics. However, the clause (I go store) has a missing dot, which is a PREPOSITION of "to."  The preposition "to" helps user to "connect the dots" (Weinstein and Finn 18): I go to a store.  The preposition "to" helps to connect a verb {go} with a noun {store}. Without the prepositional word of "to," the clause becomes incomplete, and prescriptive grammarians will voice their concerns!

Just think about driving on a long road and looking for a mile marker to help you know where you are in time and place, PREPOSITIONS will do just that in the English language.

Ellicott City Mile Marker Enhancement Project to Begin | Howard County

2) "In 2008, Barack Obama became the First Black man to be elected as President of the United States" (Weinstein and Finn 21). 

The clause above did not tell how President Barack Obama was elected. By adding "by" as a preposition and other words to make a prepositional phrase, the sentence would provide more details.  

"In 2008, Barack Obama became the First Black man to be elected as President of the United States" (Weinstein and Finn 21) by overcoming many obstacles and beating the odds. 

Biography of Barack Obama, 44th U.S. President

 3)  "The Morenos cut their fuel bill in half."

To make the clause above more meaningful, a user or writer can add "with" or "by" indicate how "The Morenos cut their fuel bill in half" (Weinstein and Finn 21).

"The Morenos cut their fuel bill in half" with everyone's efforts and saving strategies.

Boy Helping Young Man Installing Weather Stripping On Window.

Works Cited 

Weinstein, Lawrence and Finn, Thomas. Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are. Pearson 

     Education, Inc. 2011.

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