The Prepositional Phrases Function As The Adverbial Modifier Of Beginning Of The Sentence

One important syntactic function of preposition phrases is to be the adverbial before subject. In this thesis, we mark the prepositional phrases can act as the adverbial modifier before subject as "Pp' ", investigated separately its sentence structure type, semantic type and pragmatic function. We will study the restriction factors what affect for Pp' being adverbial modifier before subject in three respects of syntax, semantic and pragmatic. This thesis has four chapters except the preface and epilogue.Chapter one divided into three parts. First two parts sums up the structure types of Pp' according to preposition and type of object of Pp'. The back part probe into the factor of restrict Pp' to act as adverbial modifier before of beginning of the sentence accord with it's syntactic structure. The factors including: syllable quantity, the structure within Pp' and the sentence structure of other composition.Chapter two proceed to analyze the semantic function of preposition and sum up the semantic type of Pp' , and point out that the preposition in Pp' which can act as adverbial modifier of beginning of the sentence can guide nine kinds of case, including: Object-case, relevance-case, Adjacency-case, Basis-reason-case, Time-location-case and precondition-case, etc. On this basis, it is discussed that the semanteme factor does the restriction of the adverbial modifier of beginning of the sentence to Pp', and display that semantic function of the preposition ,the semanteme of"X" and semantic relation among the semantic composition are belong to these factors.On the basis of studying in chapter two, Chapter three pointed out that the semantic mark function of the preposition makes Pp' have some peculiar pragmatic function. In this chapter we study the pragmatic function of Pp': the function of scope, the function of cohesion in discourse, the function of marker, the function of topic.Chapter four discussed the restriction factors of the preposition of Pp' must appear while Pp' act as the adverbial modifier of subject. These factors include: the structure type of Pp', the syntax structure within the sentence, such respects as the restriction inside this chapter, etc.