Preposition

Preposition (pronounced prep-uh-zish-uhn)

(1) In English grammar, any member of a class of words found in many languages that are used before nouns, pronouns, or other substantives to form phrases functioning as modifiers of verbs, nouns, or adjectives, and that typically express a spatial, temporal, or other relationship, as in, on, by, to, since.

(2) To position in something in advance or beforehand (often as pre-position).

(3)  An exposition; a discourse (obsolete).

1350-1400: From the Middle English preposicioun (in grammar: "indeclinable part of speech regularly placed before and governing a noun in an oblique case and showing its relation to a verb, adjective, or other noun"), from the Old French preposicion, from the Latin praepositiōn & praepositionem (nominative praepositio) (a putting before, a prefixing), noun of action from the past-participle stem of praeponere (put before), the construct being prae- (before (source of the English pre-)) + pōnere (put, set, place (past participle positus and related to  praepono (to place before)).  In grammatical use, it was a loan-translation of the Greek prothesis (literally "a setting before").  In the Old English, foresetnys was a loan-translation of the Latin praepositio and it exists in modern French as préposition.  In grammar, it's so called because it's placed before the word with which it's phrased (eg block of iron) and the more recent form meaning “to position in something in advance or beforehand” appears not to have been used before the early 1960s.

Sentences and prepositions

Another example of the medieval reverence for Latin, the “rule” in English that a sentence should not end with a preposition is an import from the classical language and an accurate description of the old practice.  English grammar however differs from the Latin, and the rule does not fit English where, certainly in speech, a final preposition is normal and idiomatic.  In short, the “rule”, which in Modern English Usage (1926), Henry Fowler (1858-1933) dismissed as a "cherished superstition" never existed, although many attempted enforcement.  

Portrait of John Dryden (1730) by George Vertue (1684-1756), line engraving on paper, Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Print Room).

Some have even been converts to the cause.  The younger John Dryden (1631–1700), a fine stylist of English and the nation's first poet laureate, would lace his sentences with terminal propositions yet in later life would edit his first editions "correcting" the indiscretions of youth, explaining that "...in considering whether what I write be the idiom of the tongue, …and have no other way to clear my doubts but by translating my English into Latin".  This Fowler would paraphrase as "...you cannot put a preposition (roughly speaking) later than its word in Latin and therefore you must not do so in English".  Even in the seventeenth century few were as punctilious although Fowler did note Edward Gibbon's (1737-1794) refinement of the "rule": Discerning "...that prepositions and adverbs are not always easily distinguished, kept on the safe side by not ending sentences with "on", "over", "under" or the like, even when they would have been adverbs".  Like those who care nothing for that other non-rule, the dreaded split infinitive, yet never commit it to writing lest they be thought unsophisticated by the fastidious, Gibbon wanted to keep up appearances.  Like Gibbon, Dryden's quill secured his reputation as a writer, his downfall nothing to do with his English, dismissed in 1689 from the laureateship because, as a devout papist, he refused to swear an oath of allegiance when the crown passed into protestant hands.  Up with such he had to put.  

There is a case to avoid the practice in writing but only if the “rule” is applied to the whole text.  Technically, the problem of placing the preposition arises most when a sentence ends with a relative clause in which the relative pronoun (that; whom; which; whomever) is the object of a preposition.  Where writing is edited to be formal, when a pronoun other than that introduces a final relative clause, the preposition usually precedes its object: “He finished the painting to which he had devoted twelve years.”  If the pronoun is that, which cannot be preceded by a preposition, or if the pronoun is omitted, then the preposition must occur at the end: “The librarian found the books that the child had scribbled in.”  Adherence to the rule does tend to render text which appears more correct grammatically even if frequently it differs from English as it is spoken: people tend to say “what did you step on?” not “on what did you step?”

Among stylists of language, other “rules” have been suggested such as avoiding unnecessary prepositions; “I stepped off the ship” is better than “I stepped off of the ship”.  Some authorities also maintain there should be a comma after prepositional phrases at the beginning of a sentence, one publication insisting one is obligatory if the phrase is longer than four words.  While that may seem arbitrary, if applied consistently, it will enhance the rhythm of the text.