Prepositional Clusters: Investigative-Oriented Learning and English Language Teaching by Melinda Mui Leng Tan Thesissubmitted to the University Of Nottingham for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy,May 2000 Vol. No. 2 TING SITY ST COPY AVAILA L Poor text in the original thesis. Some text bound close to the spine. Some images distorted Appendix X: Further analyses and commentaries for prepositional clusters This appendix will investigate the lexicogrammatical behaviour of other prepositional clusters that pattern syntactically as a) Prep + and + Prep, b) Prep + Prep. A cluster that contains one prepositional constituent will also be analysed so as to lend greater scope to the analysis. The examples of the clusters that will be investigated thus are as follows: 9 Prep + and + Prep: by and by, offand on, on and off, out and out, over and over, up and up, through and through 9 Prep + Prep: inside out, up against, down under 9 Cluster containingone prepositionalconstituent: upside down A more detailedlist of prepositionalclusters including those,which consistof one prepositional constituent,can be found in Section 3.12. The findings regarding theseclusters analysed from the perspectivesof cognitive semanticsand principles of corpus linguistics are illustrated in a table in this section. The table demonstratesthe scopeand range of the study and these examplesanalysed here are a representative sectionof someof the various clusterpatterns investigated in the study. 1. Prep + and + Prep clusters 1.1 Bv and b The usageof this particular prepositionalcluster is not very common as there were very few examples found (2 examples in the BNC, 15 in COBUILD and I 320 examplein CANCODE) in the corpora used. The idiomatic meaning of by and by is generally"in a short while" or "gradually" as the examplesbelow illustrate: by-and-by (SARA line 1) and they cameto an enchantedplace ... He knew that by-and-by, when they were ripe, they would drop down into the (SARA line 2) ground... You'll back it, by by (COBUILD line 1) come aroundto and ... I didn't him for By by I looked him (COBUILD line 3) see months. and up... To be by by fool, beast (COBUILD line 6) now a sensibleman, and a andpresently a ... her love by by (CANCODE line 1) she'll get own and ... (SeeAppendix Al and A2 for more examples) From the examples above, it can be seen that by and by functions mainly as an adverbial of time. This cluster has a semanticpreference for words and verbs which expresssome indication of time e.g. "will", "months", "now". The semanticprosody that seemsto be indicatedis one of gradualwaiting for a particular event to take place or be forgotten. What is interestingto note is that as a lexical unit on its own, by and by has an overall meaning and grammatical function which is different from its constituentby. As a single word, by can act as a preposition,or adverb: Grammatical functions of -by By as a preposition: The following examplesillustrate how by functions grammaticallyas a preposition: it in formed by fold the harshblanket (SARA line 1) ... was a cave a of stiff, ... 321 Tom Rooney by the door his in his hand (SARA ... was standing with pocket-watch ... line 23) How far be by known ? (SARA line 30) ... can the statement supported evidence ... The in Jamaicaby Ed Robinson (COBUILD line 15) ... artists are recorded ... The 33rd Kentucky Derby by Pink Star (COBUILD line 25) ... annual was won ... havebeen hard hit by (COBUILD line 37) ... art museums the economicrecession... Bv as an adverb: A lot time has by last (COBUILD line 26) ... of gone sincewe met... He by in (COBUILD line 40) ... walked without noticing me the shadows... (Refer to AppendicesA3, A4 and A5 for more examples) Meanine usaizesof bv: From corpus analysis, it was found that by had many meaning usages, some of which are given below Sense 1: "to show the person, thing or organisation that has performed a particular action": the increasing by departments (SARA line 25) ... use of computers agency media ... The final the Carlsberg Tens by Aliens from Japan (SARA line 49) ... of was won ... Sense2: "to show the use or means of": This involves trying to Marx's by to ... grasp concept not solely referring previous ideology (SARA line 14) conceptions of ... You by I I'm (SARA line 15) ... can tell the way use my walk, a woman's man... Further details in Midlothian be by telephoning (SARA ... of this route can obtained ... line 33) 322 Sense3: "passingthrough or along! They in by back door (COBUILD line 28) ... came the ... It's if by (CANCODE line) ... quicker you go the main road... Sense4: "past". A lot has by last (COBUILD line 26) ... of time gone sincewe met... He by in (COBUILD line 40) ... walked without noticing me the shadows.... Sense5: "neae, Torn Rooney by door his in his hand (SARA ... was standing the with pocket-watch ... line 23) harder by boom (SARA line 50) ... peoplewere generallyworking the end of the ... Sense6: "put aside" Try to bit by for the holidays (COBUILD line 16) ... put a of money ... (Refer to AppendicesA3, A4 and A5 for more examples) One interesting observationmade during the analysis was that the idiomatic meaning of by and by - "soon" or "gradually" did not seem to have been derived from any of the various meaningsof its constituentby. One possiblereason could be that by does not have a strong spatial meaning like the preposition in or up where many of the conceptualmeanings derive from this basic spatial meaning.Thus, in the cluster by and by, it is not possible to apply a modular approachin interpreting its overall meaningas in other clusterslike up and down, in and out, etc. A more viable and suitableapproach to investigatingthe meaningusage of clusterswith weak spatial meaningssuch as by and by would be to apply principles of corpus linguistics as I have donehere. 323 1.2 off and on, on and o Corpus evidence show similar meaning usages for these two reversible binomials (see Malkiel 1959) - "moving away from and towards", "from time to time", "continuously". In both cases,the clusters behave grammatically as adverbs and complements. Egj:. PC doesit harm leaving it (SARA ... switching a on and off more than poweredup ... line 19) the irritating flashed (SARA line 27) ... neon sign on and off .. He had his heart helping little ladies the ... set on punching tickets and old on and off bus (SARA line 36) ... lunch jumping (COBUILD line 2 1) ... skipping and on and off scales These (COBUILD line 40) ... canvasclassics slip on and offwith ease... There's light there flickering (CANCODE line ... a on and off .. 6) It is idea ... a good to turn the main stopcock off and on once or twice each year to keep its mechanismfree... (SARA line 3 1) I just take I (SARA line 47) ... specsoffand on, off my noseas ... require them... it is the he has the field (COBUILD line 10) ... commitment shown offand on ... (Refer to Appendix B, B 1,132PC9 C1 and C2 for more examples) It is not clear whetherthe choice of prepositionalcluster in the examplesgiven is dependenton the factors that Birdsong (1995) posits such as, a) the speaker's orientation,where the position nearestthe speakergets first preference,or b) a natural order of events,e. g. somethinghas to be turned on before it is turned off, something has to be projected upwards before it can come down. There are however examples 324 that contravenethe above factors where the choice of leading preposition (whetheron or off should be the first constituentof the binomial) seemsrandomly appointed by the speaker.In all the casesbelow, either prepositional cluster would be appropriate to convey a similar meaning of "moving away/towards", "continuous action" and "from time to time". Egs- designerRalph included ... most of Koltai's massivesets, which staircasesappearing and disappearing,scenes sliding offand on... (SARA line 34) the blink (COBUILD line 12) ... neon motel sign offand on... He had been Molly for (SARA line 10) ... seeing on and off about six months ... I've been benefit (COBUILD line 4) ... campaigning on and offabout child ... Well he lived there on and offfor three four (CANCODE line 5) ... or years ... (Refer to Appendix B, B 1,132PC2 CI and C2 for more examples) Further analysis of corpus data shows that colligationally, on and off and off and on are observedto be found in the following syntacticpattern: verb - ingled1participle+ off and onlon and off The idiomatic meaning of the cluster - "moving towards/awayfrom"- could been derived from have the spatial meaningsof their constituentson - "above and touching a surface"and off- "away from": Spatialmeaning of off. "g3yayfrom" boat ... with an outboard motor was taken in tow by a trawler 25 miles off Cornwall (SARA ... line 35) Keeping the TV the floor (COBUILD ... and audio speakersoff makesmore space... line 32) 325 in SeaEmpress (COBUILD line 34) ... succeed pulling the offthe rocks.... Spatial meaningof on: "above andtouching a surface" barrels big jars in ... small and clad wicker, standingon shelvesand on the floor... (SARA line 1) didn't he better (SARA line 3) ... play on pitches?... Remove to (COBUILD line 5) ... and allow cool on a wire rack.... in (COBUILD line 40) ... positionsthat avoid stresson your lower back and neck... Other meaningsof the constituentsoff and on as well as their grammatical functions are given below: Meaning usages for o Sense1: "leaving a place or position" (adverb) We're (SARA line 41) ... shootingoffnow ... Spainthe day (SARA line 42) ... we were offto, next ... Sense2: "remove or no Ionizerwantim" (adverb) He's his (SARA line 40) ... taken coat off .. I just it's this bit the door I to take (SARA line 46) ... need, of need off .