This book provides a pioneering and data-oriented investigation of the syntax and semantics of important prepositional complementation patterns dependent on the prepositions in, to, at, on, with, and of in current English. The investigation is based on a sample of matrix verbs that governs the pattern of sentential complementation. The data includes the Brown and LOB corpora, English dictionaries and grammars, and the intuitions of native speakers.

Rudanko sets up taxonomies of matrix verbs and argues that they often can be based on relatively few core classes. He questions whether verbs...