Membership Prepositions

(Under Development)


This category is for senses that establish a relationship of membership between the governor and complement, wherein either can be a member of the genus that the other represents; the salient thing is that the preposition (and very often, along with other words in proximity) state that the relationship is one of genus and species. This discussion of the Membership class of prepositions is based on an examination of the 23 senses identified in The Preposition Project (TPP) with the Pattern Dictionary of English Prepositions (PDEP). This set of senses is discussed in sections 9.54 and 9.60 of Quirk et al. There are 23 membership senses under 19 prepositions. (See Preposition Classes for how this class relates to other classes. For the supersenses (unlexicalized categores for prepositions), see PrepWiki; the PDEP database is being kept synchronized with this project, as they are assigned to TPP senses.)

Category Types

Membership senses fall into two main categories, depending on whether the complement expresses the group or the species. The governor expresses the other (i.e., the species or the group). The categorization is based on the type of the complement, as follows:

Selection Criteria

The membership relation is generally between two noun phrases. Mostly, the complement will be directly attached to another noun phrase, but occcasionally the governor will be a copula or a verb that implies a noun-like group. In some cases, the genus-species relationship may be encoded in the WordNet hypernym/hyponym relations. In many cases, the species may be identified by a partitive noun. In many cases, the group may be identified by a collective noun.

References

  1. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartik, J. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman: New York.

Comments to: Ken Litkowski  Modified: February 14 2020 18:52:25.
PDEP Membership Class (49 senses)
PrepositionSenseSubclassSrtypeSupersenseClassedCountPctNF
\'mongst2(2)GroupGroupYes0100.00.19
\'pon10(4)GroupGroupProfessionalAspectYes0100.00.19
across3(n)GroupApplicableRangeYes55100.0297.62
among2(2)GroupGroupSupersetYes95100.01115.18
as1(1)GroupFunctionFulfilledAttributeYes145100.017636.88
as3(n)SpeciesMemberYes47100.05716.78
by7(2b)SpeciesNameUsedYes2100.0238.43
by the name of1(1)SpeciesNameUsedYes68100.012.61
by way of2(2)SpeciesFunctionFulfilledYes91100.050.37
complete with1(1)SpeciesPartYes242100.076.31
counting1(1)SpeciesThingIncludedYes0100.00.19
frae9(6)SpeciesSubstanceMaterialYes0100.00.19
from9(6)SpeciesSubstanceMaterialYes4100.0333.96
in12(9)GroupWholeSuperset,ValueYes2100.0741.97
in7(5)GroupGroupActivity,Locus,SupersetYes111100.041179.42
in common with2(n)GroupThingSimilarYes170100.058.02
in the person of1(1)SpeciesIndividualNamedYes63100.011.69
in token of1(1)GroupThingRepresentedYes6100.01.11
including1(1)SpeciesMemberYes246100.02657.20
inclusive of1(1)SpeciesPartYes47100.08.72
inside6(n)GroupGroupYes48100.082.16
like7(3)SpeciesExampleElementsYes137100.01710.01
o\'1(1)GroupWholeYes0100.00.00
o\'10(5a)GroupGenusYes1100.00.00
o\'17(8)SpeciesConstituentMaterialYes0100.00.00
o\'2(1a)GroupWholeSuperset,WholeYes8100.00.02
o\'3(1b)GroupWholePartitiveYes26100.00.05
o\'3(1b)-1SpeciesContentsPartitiveYes6100.00.01
o\'9(5)SpeciesSpeciesSpeciesYes18100.00.03
of1(1)GroupWholeYes0100.0247.32
of10(5a)GroupGenusSpeciesYes19100.04699.15
of17(8)SpeciesConstituentElements,MaterialYes1100.0247.32
of2(1a)GroupWholeSuperset,WholeYes57100.014097.46
of3(1b)GroupWholeQuantity,Superset,WholeYes137100.033883.37
of3(1b)-1SpeciesContentsQuantityYes3100.0741.97
of9(5)SpeciesSpeciesInstanceYes150100.037098.58
of the name of1(1)SpeciesNameUsedYes5100.00.93
on10(4)GroupGroupProfessionalAspectYes5100.0413.76
onto5(n)GroupGroupYes8100.010.51
outside2(1a)GroupGroupSupersetYes25100.0115.77
outwith2(1a)GroupGroupYes4100.00.74
qua1(1)GroupFunctionFulfilledYes0100.00.19
throughout3(n)GroupApplicableRangeYes18100.095.59
under12(4d)GroupClassifierStateYes21100.0475.39
upon10(4)GroupGroupProfessionalAspectYes0100.011.33
with2(2)SpeciesPartAttributeYes114100.09012.11
with5(3a)SpeciesSubstanceThemeYes26100.02055.39
within4(1c)GroupEntityLimitingLocus,SupersetYes108100.02297.01
within7(n)GroupGroupYes32100.0680.60
Total      178113.8