An adpositional phrase is a linguistics term defining a syntactic category that includes prepositional phrases and postpositional phrases. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition in the head position and usually a complement such as a noun phrase. Language syntax treats adpositional phrases as units that act as complements or adjuncts.
Postpositional and prepositional phrases differ by the order of the words used. Head-first languages such as English normally use prepositional phrases while head-final languages use postpositional.
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The bolded phrases are examples of prepositional phrases in English:
Prepositional phrases have a preposition as the central element of the phrase. In contrast to other types of phrases, this cannot be described as a head, since the preposition cannot stand on its own. The remaining parts of the phrase, usually a noun phrase, are called the prepositional complement.
The first example could be diagrammed (using simplified modern notation):
IP
/ \
NP VP
| | \
N V \
| | PP
She is / \
/ \
P NP
| / \
on Det N
| |
the computer
Where by convention:
The diagram shows that the prepositional phrase in this sentence is composed of two parts: a preposition and a noun phrase. The preposition is in the head position, and the noun phrase is in the complement position. Because English is a head-first language, we usually see the head before the complement (or any adjuncts) when we actually read the sentence. (However, the head comes after the specifier, such as the determiner "the" in the noun phrase above.)
See adposition for more examples of complements found in prepositional phrases.
Prepositional phrases generally act as complements and adjuncts of noun phrases and verb phrases. For example:
A prepositional phrase should not be confused with the sequence formed by the particle and the direct object of a phrasal verb, as in turn on the light. This sequence is structurally distinct from a prepositional phrase. In this case, "on" and "the light" do not form a unit; they combine independently with the verb "turn".
Another common point of confusion is that the word "to" may appear either as a preposition or as a verbal particle in infinitive verb phrases, such as "to run for president".
Postpositions are usually found in head-final languages such as Basque, Estonian, Finnish, Georgian, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Tamil. The word or other morpheme that corresponds to an English preposition occurs after its complement, hence the name postposition. The following examples are from Japanese:
And from Finnish, where postpositions have further developed into case endings:
Postpositional phrases generally act as complements and adjuncts of noun phrases and verb phrases.