Multi-prepositional constructions in English

This paper examines the semantic and syntactic properties of English constructions containing a verb followed by two (or three) prepositions (including expressions like to walk out on, to talk someone out of, to go up to). First it is argued that, just like simple verb-preposition constructions (e.g. to come across, to switch off or to refer to), multi-preposition construction (MP-construction) come in various types. By applying a large number of semantic and syntactic criteria to authentic examples, it is shown that a distinction needs to be made between two major construction types - the composite-predicate construction and the appositional construction - whereby the latter construction type can be further divided into a resultative construction and a Verb + PP-construction. Subsequently, FDG representations are offered for each of these construction types, reflecting the differences between these types at the Representational Level. Finally, some important implications for the theory of FDG are considered concerning the categorization of lexical elements, in particular the viability of (a) the distinction between particles, locative adverbs and prepositions (where they all take the same form), (b) the distinction between grammatical and lexical prepositions, and (c) the distinction between prepositions and conjunctions (where they take the same form).