The study of Syntax should be previously to that of Punctuation.

He introduced himself in a manner very abruptly.

Conformably to their vehemence of thought, was their vehemence of gesture.

I saw him previously to his arrival.

LECTURE VII

OF PREPOSITIONS.

A PREPOSITION is a word which serves to connect words, and show the relation between them.

The term preposition is derived from the two Latin words, pre, which signifies before, and pono, to place.  Prepositions are so called, because they are mostly placed before the nouns and pronouns which they govern in the objective case.

The principal prepositions are presented in the following list, which you may now commit to memory, and thus you will be enabled to distinguish them from other parts of speech whenever you see them in composition.

A LIST OF THE PREPOSITIONS.

of, over, at, after, betwixt, to, under, near, about, beside, for, through, up, against, athwart, by, above, down, unto, towards, with, below, before, across, notwithstanding, in, between, behind, around, out of, into, beneath, off, amidst, instead of, within, from, on upon, throughout, over against, without, beyond, among, underneath, according to.

This list contains many words that are sometimes used as conjunctions, and sometimes as adverbs; but when you shall have become acquainted with the nature of the preposition, and of the conjunction and adverb too, you will find no difficulty in ascertaining to which of these classes any word belongs.

By looking at the definition of a preposition, you will notice, that it performs a double office in a sentence, namely, it connects words, and also shows a relation between them.  I will first show you the use and importance of this part of speech as a connective.  When corn is ripe—­October, it is gathered—­the field—­men—­who go—­hill—­hill—­baskets,—­which they put the ears.  You perceive, that in this sentence there is a total want of connexion and meaning; but let us fill up each vacancy with a preposition, and the sense will be clear.  “When corn is ripe, in October, it is gathered in the field by men, who go from hill to hill with baskets, into which they put the ears.”

From this illustration you are convinced, no doubt, that our language would be very deficient without prepositions to connect the various words of which it is composed.  It would, in fact, amount to nothing but nonsense.  There is, however, another part of speech that performs this office, namely, the conjunction.  This will be explained in Lecture IX.; in which lecture you will learn, that the nature of a preposition, as a connective particle, is nearly allied to that of a conjunction.  In the next place I will show you how prepositions express a relation between words.