Learn English – Why does Pinker classify these words as prepositions in *The Sense of Style*

parts-of-speechprepositions

In his recent book, The Sense of Style, Steven Pinker explains permissible uses of commas and writes this sentence

And when the writer pinpoints the coherence relation he has in mind with an explicit connective such as a coordinator (and, or, *but, yet, so, nor) or a preposition (although, except, if, before, after, because, for), a comma is fine …

(p. 292)

I understand before and after can be prepositions. However, I can't find a reference that because is a preposition. The OED lists senses as an adverb, a conjunction, and a noun. Why has Pinker said that these are prepositions? Pinker is a serious linguist, so I don't regard even the OED's entry as an absolute refutation, but he seems to be on his own here.

Best Answer

On page 310 of The Sense of Style Pinker states:

The terminology and analyses in this book are based on The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002).

On page 1011 of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Huddleston introduces the lengthy analysis that leads him to designating as prepositions what in traditional grammar would be called conjunctions, among them although, while, after and because:

The analysis of content clauses presented in this chapter differs in significant ways from that found in traditional grammar.

Co-author Pullum has written an entry for Language Log in which he explains the rationale for regarding because as a preposition. It includes the following extract:

So what should we say about because? Contrary to all the dictionaries, it is a preposition. As its complement (the phrase that follows it to complete the PP) it may take either a clause (as in the PP because he holds ridiculous beliefs) or a PP with of as its head (as in the PP because of our public universities). Some prepositions can occur with no complement (as in We went in), some require an NP (as of does) some require a clause (as although does), and some require a PP (like out in those uses that do not involve exiting from delimited regions of space: notice that They did it out of ignorance is grammatical but They did it out ignorance is not).

So, in summary, Pinker is following the CGEL in listing although, except, if, before, after, because, for as prepositions.

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