A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

preposition 383
precede those involved with language organization. Psychological factors, such
as cognitive awareness and attention, could be seen as prelinguistic in this sense.
The term is contentious in psycholinguistics.
(2) In language acquisition, the period immediately preceding the emergence
of linguistic patterning in children’s vocalization is considered a prelinguistic
stage of development, viz. much of the second half of the first year
of life.
prelinguistics (n.) A term used by some linguists, especially in the 1950s, to
refer to the articulatory and acoustic study of sound, as opposed to the
strictly linguistic studies of phonology, etc. (microlinguistics). In this
frame of reference, it was seen as a branch of macrolinguistics. The term
prelinguistic is sometimes used outside this framework to refer to any construct
which needs to be taken into account as a preliminary consideration before
linguistic analysis proceeds, e.g. the obtaining of adequate data samples.
premodification (n.) A term used in some models of grammatical description
to refer to all the items which occur before the head of a phrase (an
endocentric phrase), e.g. All those big red foreign cars have been sold. determiners
and adjectives are the main classes which premodify (occur in
premodifying position) in English, but there are several other categories involved
in the full description of this complex area, e.g. quantifiers, intensifiers.
pre-nasal, pre-nasalized (adj.)
see nasal
preparatory conditions
see felicity conditions
preparatory it see anticipatory (3)
preposing (n.) A term used in generative grammar to refer to the movement
of a constituent to a position earlier in the sentence, e.g. an adverb is
preposed in Yesterday I bought a bike; a verb is preposed in I thought they’d be
complaining, and complaining they were. See also WH-.
preposition (n.) (P, pr, prep, PREP) A term used in the grammatical classification
of words, referring to the set of items which typically precede noun
phrases (often single nouns or pronouns), to form a single constituent of
structure. The resulting prepositional phrase (PP) (or prepositional group) can
then be described in terms of distribution (e.g. their use following a noun, as
in the man in the corner) or semantically (e.g. the expression of possession,
direction, place). Prepositional sequences of the type illustrated by in accordance
with are often called complex prepositions. A postposition is a particle,
similar in function to a preposition, which is placed after a noun phrase, as
in Japanese. Many linguists subscribe to a broader view of prepositions. To
form a prepositional phrase, prepositions can combine with not only an NP
but also a PP (e.g. since before breakfast), a clause (e.g. since they finished
their breakfast) or nothing (e.g. I haven’t seen him since). In this account,
it is possible to talk of ‘transitive’ and ‘intransitive’ prepositions. See also
adposition.