Particular prepositions

Of

The preposition "of" is almost always non-meaningful. Its complement is obligatory (either a NP or a VPing). Of-PPs are predominantly complements of nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Complement of noun

Of-PPs are the default complements for nouns. This is particularly clear for deverbal nouns (aka. "nominalisations"), where the deep subject or direct object is realised as either a genitive determiner or an of-PP complement:

• the emperor died - the death of the emperor - the emperor's death
• they assassinated the emperor - the assassination of the emperor - the emperor's assassination

• the house of her former husband - her former husband's house
• the son-in-law of Dick Brown - Dick Brown's son-in-law
• the majority of the students - *the student's majority
• a glass of water - *water's glass

Guideline - where an of-PP X is the complement of a noun N which is derived from some verb V, and the role played by X is equivalent to the subject or object NP of V, then there should be a dependency from N to the head of X's NP complement, labelled 'subject' or 'object' respectively. Where an of-PP X is the complement of a non-deverbal noun N, then there should be a dependency from N to the head of X's NP complement, labelled 'of'. [Note: special treatment probably needs to be made for measure phrases, e.g. "the majority of X", "a glass of X"].

[List of deverbal nouns? List of measure phrases with "of"?]

Complement of adjective

Of-PPs are the default complements for adjectives:

• I feel ashamed of myself
• They seem bereft of ideas
• She is convinced of his guilt (deverbal?)
• It if full of water
• It is good of you to help
• We're short of money

Where an of-PP X is the complement of an adjective, then there should be a dependency from A to the head of X's NP complement, labelled 'of'.

-- MarkMcConville - 11 Sep 2008