English Prepositions  Expressing Temporal Limits: Semantic Features and Functioning

Abstract

This article explores the semantics and usage of prepositions in the English that denote temporal limits of actions. A review of various lexicographical sources, reference literature, and grammars is conducted, highlighting that not all sources provide comprehensive information on the meanings and functioning of prepositions, often offering only general information. Practical material for the study is extracted from the British National Corpus, comprising approximately two thousand contexts. It is established that making a definitive conclusion about including a temporal limit within the timeframe allocated for an action is not always possible. This semantic ambiguity is noted in around 20% of the total number of analyzed contexts. The study demonstrates that to resolve ambiguity and ensure successful communication, addressees often resort to using clarifying elements or complete / partial paraphrasing of the message text. Clarifications are found to be most typical in texts of a scientific research nature, schedules, legal and economic documents. The article concludes on the necessity of further research related to the semantics and usage of prepositions.

Keywords

• collocations
• prepositions
• preposition semantics
• temporal limit
• semantic ambiguity
• corpus