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Glite Dictionary
postposition

postposition

9.7
A word that comes after a noun to show its role, like in Japanese
  • noun
  • /ˌpoʊstpəˈzɪʃən/
  • Specialized
: posposición
  • In some languages, a postposition is placed after the noun phrase it governs, contrasting with the use of prepositions.

Examples

  • In Hindi, a postposition follows the noun.

  • Japanese is a language that regularly uses postpositions rather than prepositions.

  • In some languages, a postposition is used instead of a preposition to indicate relationships between nouns.

  • The linguistics lecture explained how postposition differs from preposition in various language families.

  • The postpositions in this language are quite unique.

  • In Hindi, a postposition follows the noun to show the relationship between the noun and other elements in the sentence.

  • Japanese is a language that regularly uses postpositions to indicate the grammatical function of nouns.

Surface Forms

postposition singular
postpositions plural

Morphology

postposition = position (transparent) = post + position

Formed by the productive prefix 'post-' (after) + 'position', so the meaning 'placed after' is directly recoverable from the parts.

Etymology

Postposition is made of post ('after') and position ('place'). So a postposition is a word placed 'after' the word it goes with, the opposite of pre- ('before') as in preposition.