La preposition en francais (review)

In this book, Melis identifies a broad range of problems that make the French preposition difficult to define, classify, and understand. M presents his research on the difficulties of the French preposition for three main reasons: (i) in order to demonstrate how definitions and grammatical discussions often fail to consider the complex diversity of prepositions, (ii) to stimulate grammarians to think about prepositions in new ways, and (iii) to facilitate research by providing bibliographic information. Although M does suggest some new methods for examining the complexities of the preposition, he states that his main intention is to stimulate discussion rather than present definitive solutions. In the introduction to his book, M highlights the paradoxical nature of prepositions, noting that they are used easily and naturally by the native speaker but seem imprecise and confusing to the foreign language student. Grammarians pay little attention to prepositions in comparison to the number of pages they dedicate to verbs or nouns, and yet ‘one need only omit prepositions for the discourse to become unintelligible’ (5).

The three chapters that make up most of this book are lengthy, detailed, and fairly complex. All the information presented, however, is sorted into three categories: syntactic relations, semantics, and classification. Each category is treated in its own chapter: ‘La préposition et le groupe prépositionnel: questions de syntaxe’ (Ch. 1), ‘Les prépositions: problèmes de sémantique’ (Ch. 2), and ‘La classe des prépositions’ (Ch. 3). The first chapter covers issues relating to syntax, such as whether the objects of prepositions are always substantives. In the second chapter, M discusses semantics, using sur as the basis against which to compare and contrast various prepositions and their ranges of meaning. In the third chapter, M focuses on the preposition de and on prepositional locutions in relation to the idea of prepositions as a class. In each of the three chapters, M identifies complexities and difficulties, and then describes various approaches to these challenges as recorded in specialized works on prepositions, or in general works such as the ‘Grevisse-Gosse’ French grammar. The final two pages of each chapter contain descriptive bibliographies.

In addition to the introduction and the three chapters, M’s book contains five other components: a conclusion, a glossary, an index, a bibliography, and a table of contents. M uses the conclusion to highlight how the theme of the flexibility of prepositions predominates in the book and to remind the reader that the work is intended as a springboard for further study of French prepositions, the philosophy of language, and even prepositions in languages other than French. The glossary defines fifteen grammatical and linguistic terms that are used in the book, such as ‘complémenteur’ and ‘grammaticalisation’. The index presents a concordance of all prepositions discussed in the book and a comprehensive bibliography of seventy-one entries follows. The table of contents lists chapter headings and subheadings that outline the complexities of this short, yet technical, study.