PREPOSITON is the name in grammar for a word or group of words used to show a relationship between a noun or noun-like form, usually called the “object of the preposition,” and some other part of an utterance. English has about 60 one-word preposition (with, along), perhaps half as many two-word prepositions (across from, up to), and still fewer three-word forms (on account of, with respect to). As a result, the stock of prepositions is relatively small and change very slowly.

介词是用于表示名词或类名词形式之间关系的一个词或一组词的名称，通常被称为“介词的宾语”，以及话语的某些其它部分。英语有大约60个一个词的介词（随着，沿着），也许有一半是两个词的介词（在…对面，一直到），还有较少的三个词的形式（由于，关于）。因此，介词的数量相对较少，变化很慢。

Relationships signaled by prepositions range from the concrete ones of place, motion, and time (I am at home. Go to the corner. Please come by six.), through the more abstract and figurative (I am under an obligation. He spoke on that question.), to very abstract, purely “grammatical” relationships (the State of Virginia, attorney at law). Prepositions and their objects, along with any modifiers, are called “prepositional phrases.” These function predominantly as adjectival or adverbial modifiers of the preceding words to which they logically apply (He is a man of great courage. He walks with a quick step.)

介词表示的关系范围从具体的场所、运动和时间（我在家。躲在角落里。请在六点来。），通过更为抽象和形象的（我有义务。他谈论了那个问题。），到非常抽象的、纯粹的语法关系（弗吉尼亚州，诉讼律师）。介词及其宾语，连同任何修饰词都被称为“介词短语”。这些功能在逻辑上的应用主要是作为形容词或副词的修饰词（他是个很有勇气的人。他快步行走）。

Prepositions also occur as parts of phrasal verbs, in which case the form in the position of the object is more properly the object of the whole verb. In “He talks about love,” the word “love” is not the object of the preposition “about,” but of the verb “to talk about.”

介词也会作为动词短语的一部分出现，在这种情况下，宾语位置中的形式更适合作为整个动词的宾语。在“他谈到爱情”中，“love ”这个词不是介词“about”的宾语，而是动词短语“to talk about”的宾语。

The word “preposition” is derived from the Latin praepositio, meaning “a placing before,” because, generally, in the Indo-European languages prepositions precede their objects. In early English they shared with inflected case forms the function of signaling relationships.

“介词”这个词来自拉丁语praepositio，意思是“安置在…之前”，因为，在印欧语系中介词通常处于它们的宾语之前。在早期的英语中，它们与屈折格共同形成了信号传递关系的功能。

Traditional Grammar.  Except for the multiplication of examples, some refinement of types, and the observation that the objects of prepositions are in the objective case rather than in the nominative, the foregoing discussion is nearly all that the Latin-based and school-oriented pre-20th century grammar had to say about prepositions. Critics of the older grammar tend to remember mainly its prohibition against ending a sentence with a preposition (I know who you’re talking about.) English, of course, has never operated by such a rule.

传统语法。除了大量增加的例子，类型的一些改进，以及介词的宾语都是宾格而不是主格的观察之外，前面的讨论几乎是20世纪前以拉丁语为基础，以学校为导向的语法不得不说的介词的全部内容。老旧语法的批评者主要倾向于记得它反对用介词来结束一个句子的禁律（我知道你在说谁）。当然，英语从未遵循过这样的规则。

Structural Grammar.  The new grammar that dominated the first half of the 20^th century brought a reclassifying of prepositions into the category of “function words,” since they seemed to be “empty” words used not for their dictionary, or lexical, meaning but for their structural, or grammatical, meaning in marking relationships. As a grammatical school, the structuralists were particularly interested in finding those systems of a language that do not depend on or involve lexical meaning. They also began to study the intricate systems manifested in the phrasal verbs.

结构上的语法。主导了20世纪前半叶的新语法将介词的重新分类归入了“虚词”的范畴，因为它们似乎在词典，或词法，意义上是无法使用的“无用的”词，而要在标记它们的结构，或语法，意义的关系中使用它们。作为语法学校，结构语言学家对寻找不依赖或涉及词法意义的那些语言系统特别感兴趣。他们也开始研究在动词短语中所显示的错综复杂的系统。

Transformational Grammar.  In this dominant grammar of the second half of the 20^th century, the chief special concern has been to decide whether prepositions are present in the “deep” levels of language competence, or whether they are inserted later by rules governing the formation of “surface” structures. Clarity on such an issue would advance our understanding of the inner formative processes of language, which is the goal of transformationalism. See GRAMMAR—Transformational-Generative Grammar.

转换语法。在20世纪下半叶的这种主导语法中，特别关注的是确定介词是否存在于语言表达能力的“深层”层面，或者，是否是由规则控制而形成“表面”结构后被插入的。弄清这样一个问题会促进我们对语言内在形成过程的理解，这正是转换论的目标。见语法---转换-生成语法词条。

                                 ROBERT L. CHAPMAN, Drew University

                                  罗伯特 L. 查普曼，德鲁大学

                                          2022年7月14日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第22卷，第547页