A Corpus-based Study On Three-word Prepositions

Three-word preposition has its special structure - Prep1 + Noun + Prep2. This structure is flexible, and thus makes it difficult to identify which word sequence that followed this pattern is a complex preposition and which is only a free combination. Quirk proposes nine syntactic criteria to identify three-word prepositions. This thesis is trying to use statistica] criterion to identify three-word prepositions.This thesis first analyzes the syntactic characteristics of the compositions of three-word prepositions. All the sentences that used as evidence are searched and taken from the British National Corpus (BNC). This thesis uses z-score to test the sequences that accord with the structure Prep1 + Noun + Prep2, and then makes comparative analyses between three-word prepositions in natural texts and the complex prepositions that listed in grammar books. Some word sequences that are not regarded as complex prepositions are frequently used by the natives, in contrast, some three-word prepositions that linguists list in books are seldom used. This paper analyzes the reasons in the aspect of variants, the difference between American English and British English, etc.Through corpus approach, we can get much information about three-word prepositions in natural texts. And this method of research and the findings of the study have some significance in language teaching and learning.