Adpositions can be organized into subclasses according to various criteria. These can be based on directly observable properties (such as the adposition's form or its position in the sentence) or on less visible properties (such as the adposition's meaning or function in the context at hand). [edit]Simple vs complex Simple adpositions consist of a single word, while complex adpositions consist of a group of words that act as one unit. Some examples of complex prepositions in English are: in spite of, with respect to, except for, by dint of, next to The boundary between simple and complex adpositions is not clear-cut and for the most part arbitrary. Many simple adpositions are derived from complex forms (e.g. with + in > within, by + side > beside) through grammaticalization. This change takes time, and during the transitional stages the adposition acts in some ways like a single word, and in other ways like a multi-word unit. For example, current German orthographic conventions recognize the indeterminate status of the following adpositions, allowing two spellings:[9] anstelle / an Stelle ("instead of"), aufgrund / auf Grund ("because of"), mithilfe / mit Hilfe ("thanks to"), zugunsten / zu Gunsten ("in favor of"), zuungunsten / zu Ungunsten ("to the disadvantage of"), zulasten / zu Lasten ("at the expense of") The boundary between complex adpositions and free combinations of words is also a fuzzy one. For English, this involves structures of the form "preposition + (article) + noun + preposition". Many sequences in English, such as in front of, that are traditionally regarded as prepositional phrases are not so regarded by linguists.[10] The following characteristics are good indications that a given combination is "frozen" enough to be considered a complex preposition in English: It contains a word that cannot be used in any other context: by dint of, in lieu of. The first preposition cannot be replaced: with a view to but not *for/without a view to It is impossible to insert an article, or to use a different article: on *an/*the account of, for the/*a sake of The range of possible adjectives is very limited: in great favor of, but not *in helpful favor of The number of the noun cannot be changed: by virtue/*virtues of It is impossible to use a possessive determiner: in spite of him, not *in his spite Complex prepositions develop through the grammaticalization of commonly used free combinations. This is an ongoing process that introduces new prepositions into English.[11] [edit]Classification by position The position of an adposition with respect to its complement allows the following subclasses to be defined: A preposition precedes its complement to form a prepositional phrase. German: auf dem Tisch, French: sur la table, Polish: na stole ("on the table") A postposition follows its complement to form a postpositional phrase. Chinese: ??? zhuozi shang (lit. "table on"), Finnish: (minun) kanssani (lit. "my with"), Turkish: benimle (or "benim ile"), Latin: mecum (both lit. "me with") The two terms are more commonly used than the general adposition. Whether a language has primarily prepositions or postpositions is seen as an important aspect of its typological classification, correlated with many other properties of the language. It is usually straightforward to establish whether an adposition precedes or follows its complement. In some cases, the complement may not appear in a typical position. For example, in preposition stranding constructions, the complement appears before the preposition: {How much money} did you say the guy wanted to sell us the car for? She's going to the Bahamas? {Whom} with?
