The adposições are a group of grammatical classes , like names (which are nouns , the adjectives , the pronouns and articles ). They (additions) cover three classes:
- Prepositions – Link two terms or two sentences, subordinating each other
- Positions – Indicate subordination of a term prior to the later one
- Circumpositions – They surround the sentence, they are a double addition (These are very rare in the few languages that have it.)
They are completely invariable, as none of their classes vary. They are connective, just like Conjunctions (which only cover the class of the same name).
They follow the following characteristics:
- They syntactically combine the elements of a sentence, usually a nominal one .
- They establish relationships that combine or subdue two terms with each other. These relations can be, in the Portuguese language , of localization (ex: in); origin (ex: from); means (ex: by); matter; value; authorship; time (ex: a); position (ex ante), etc.
- Demonstrate precise grammatical relationships between their terms. For example, marking grammatical cases .
- If the verbs , adjectives and nouns of a language vary in a coordinated way, the additions vary too, but this is rare. it happens, for example, in Celtic languages .
Additions properties
In most languages, these are the properties of the additions:
- They are almost always among the most frequently spoken words of languages that have at least one of their classes.
- They are usually simple words, but there may be phrases . In Portuguese, for example, there are phrases in all our classes of additions – although we only have one – (ex: thanks to; to with; inside; in front of; as well as).
Additive Cases
Additions are divided into orders by their syntactic position – prepositions subdue the term before them to the later one; postpositions subdue the (term) following them to the previous one; Circumpositions surround the sentences semantically intertwining the terms inside them. But this causes differentiating cases:
Case 1: Ambiposition
Sometimes, a preposition can be used as a postposition and vice versa. This is called ambiposition. In Portuguese, this case does not exist (at least in use). But if there were, it would be something like “This is the John Doe” can be written “This is John Doe to .” In English , “through” can act as a preposition ( Through all night , All night through ) or as a postposition ( All night through , All night ); in German , the postposition “nach” can act commonly ( Meiner Meinung nach / In my opinion) or prepositively ( Nach meiner Meinung / In my opinion).
