PREPOSITIONS are curtain wools which (Aloes* a relation between different things. All words ii ay be divided into notional and relational. N 0110N, NOTioNAl..] Notional words are those which express notions, and which are objecta of the understanding. Relational words are those which merely express a relation between the different things which are °sprouted by notional words. Thus, in " he went to town," " hu walked with his friend," the words to and with are relational words; that is, they connect the notions of " ho went " and " he walked " respectively with the notions of " town " and " Mend." Prepositione are so called because they are proposed or prefixed to the words with which they are connected ; but the memo is an unfor tunate, 0110, 141100 they are sometimes postponed or placed nfter such words, as Iii wherewith, wherein, trim-clew, thereby, &e. In languages like our own, which have hardly any inlioetione, the relation which ono thing bears to another can only bo expressed by means of prepositions ; but in languages which possess intketionm, like the Latin and Greek, thin same relation may frequently be expressed by means of cases, which are in fact prepositions placed at the end of lumina. Thus, in Use oxpression " the son of the king," we express the rolstion between " son " mid " king " by thin preposition "of "; while hu DAM the same religion is exprossal by is placed after the Latin word for king, Pins Ilut an the mooning of theme ense.endings was not nlways doting()
enough, it became customary to mark the relation morn precisely by prefixing certain words, as in our own language. Tho easo.undings however were not droppod; so that in such exprossions an ad etelpent, cam nye, pro reipe, the noun may be said to have two words to mark relation, ono placed before and the other after it,.
The of prepositions differs, as might be expected, in different languages. The Greek grammarians admit only eighteen, the Latin about fifty. In English, the following words are usually con sidered as prepositions :—Above ; about ; after ' • againet; among, ' amongst • amid, amidst ; around, round ; at ; between, betwixt ; beyond ; before ; behind ; beneath ; below ; beside; by ; down ; for ; from ; in, into; near, nigh ; of ; off; over ; on, upon ; since ; through, throughout ; till, until ; to, unto; toward, towards; under, underneath; up ; with ; within ; without.
Besides these prepositions, there are in English, Latin, Greek, and many other languages, certain particles never found singly, or uncom pounded, and which are therefore called inseparable prepositions, as, in English, be, for, fore, vas, &c., which occur in such words as be-stir, bespeak; for-bid, forsake; fore-see, hre-know; mistake, misdeed, &c.