On 2010-10-11, at 9:04 AM, Craig wrote:

>     Verbs comprise a more unified category than you imply. All verbs inflect for tense and combine with be, have, do, and the modals in very uniform ways. Even transitivity categories are often fluid. And the verbs all dominate their predicates in the same way, constituting in that way a coherent way of representing the world. The fact that there are subcategories doesn’t at all mean that some verbs have nothing in common with other verbs.

I didn't mean to imply that verbs were not a unified category. Indeed, I fully agree that they are. In spite of the vagaries of their complements. The point is that being a verb or not has nothing to do with the type of complement they take. Adjectives too allow various complements. Although most of the time they are complement free (e.g. big), some take 'to' infinitives (e.g., happy to be here), others take present participles (e.g. busy being teacher), PPs (e.g. familiar with it?), 'that' subjunctives (e.g. important that she be there). Nouns too take a range of complements. So if complementation is almost completely useless for categorizing other words, why should it be the defining property of prepositions? 

And if one does insist on object-taking preposition, what are you to do with prepositions that take other prepositions as their complements (e.g., from under the blanket) or prepositions that take predicate complements instead of objects (e.g. That struck her as funny)?

> I believe you can find similarities between “away” and “before,” and you can find similarities between “before” and “because,” but I don’t see the connections between “away” and “because.”

These are the ones that come to mind: 
-Both can be modified by 'just' (e.g., She watched him, arms held just away from her sides. & Just because they worked there... cf. *Just certainly, he jumped.). 
-Both can function as predicate complements (e.g., He's away. & That's because we don't have time.)
-Both can function as non-predicate adjuncts (e.g., Away from the city, there were... & Because of the storm, there were... cf. *Working hard, there was...)--not that adverbs can't. 
-They can both be coordinated with PPs (e.g. away from the town and down to the river; Because of public opinion and in light of the government's obsession with maintaining an acceptable international image,... cf *Certainly and in light of....). 
-And if you want to argue for classification based on complementation, both can be complemented by PPs (e.g., away from..., because of...).

Now what's the connection between 'away' and 'certainly' or 'because' and 'that' (e.g., I know that it's here)?

>  "Soon", by the way, didn't show up on the wiktionary list.

That's a good point, to which I have no good response. It doesn't work as predicate complement to 'become', but it can do in a pinch with 'seem' (e.g., that seemed too soon). Still, I'm think on balance, 'soon' is more like an adverb than a preposition.

Best,
Brett

-----------------------
Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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