LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 25:12 December 2025
ISSN 1930-2940

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A Typological Study of Adpositions: English Prepositions and Telugu Postpositions

Dr. G. Renuka Devi

Abstract

This article analyses the syntactic distinctions between English prepositions and Telugu postpositions within a syntactic and typological context. The study emphasises structural variations in head-directionality, morphological realisation, genitive placement, stranding and stacking based on descriptive grammars, particularly within the framework of Distributed Morphology and Minimalist Program, typological surveys, and applied linguistic analysis. Instances from both languages demonstrate that English, characterised as a head-initial SVO language, constantly uses prepositions, whereas Telugu, identified as a head-final SOV language, utilises postpositions and relational nouns. The research contextualises these results concerning Greenbergian word-order universals and provides insights into their significance for second language acquisition and the theory of linguistics.

Keywords:prepositions, postpositions, structural variations, typological survey, linguistic analysis

Introduction

Adpositions are crucial indicators of geographical, chronological, and abstract relationships in several languages. They differ in form and function, manifesting as prepositions (preceding their complement) or postpositions (succeeding their complement). The syntactic function and morphological realization of adpositions showcase a significant domain in both typological and structural investigations. Adpositions belong to a universal category, P. There is a significant overlap between the functions of adpositions and morphological cases across languages, suggesting syntactic homogeneity between some cases and adpositions, with their primary contrast lying at the post-syntactic morphological level. Through the lenses of a comprehensive syntactic and typological context, this article thoroughly analyses the adpositions of Telugu and English.

English, a Germanic language, has fundamentally head-initial ordering, which functions within an SVO framework, and it always utilizes prepositions. In this system, the prepositions are typically realised as free-standing and they precede the noun phrases, i.e., P+NP. On the contrary, Telugu, a Central Dravidian language, operates in a head-final system with an SOV structure, employing postpositions and relational nouns, where the postpositions usually follow the nominal phrase, i.e., NP+P. Unlike English, Telugu is heavily inflectional. These fundamental dissimilarities cause syntactic and semantic difficulties for Telugu learners acquiring English.

This research highlights five specific structural differences between English prepositions and Telugu postpositions. Firstly, this study compares the typical head directionality found in both languages. Then it analyses the physical realisations of adpositions, i.e., in English prepositions are separate and independent words, whereas in Telugu, postpositions are often suffixed directly to the nouns or they are blended with case markers. Thirdly, this article investigates the position of the genitive element, relating its placement to the structure of the NP or DP to be more specific. Finally stranding and stacking features of adpositions are analysed. This investigation relies on contemporary theories like Distributed Morphology, Minimalist Program syntax, and draws on information from cross-linguistic surveys and applied linguistic analysis. These structural differences are framed by referencing Greenbergian Word-Order Universals. These frameworks treat adpositions and case markers as the outcome of the spell-out stage of different functional projections of the noun, i.e., P, D, and Ø.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. G. Renuka Devi
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics and Contemporary English
The English and Foreign Languages University
Regional Campus, Lucknow
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