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
Of-PPs also realise complements of other nouns (only some of which can be expressed as genitive determiners):
- 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'.
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MarkMcConville - 11 Sep 2008