Answers Appear Here

Prepositions: 

What preposition can go in the spaces?

1. Interactive activities were organised to raise students' awareness of global warming.

'awareness of' -  136 instances.
'awareness about' - 4 instances.
'awareness among' - 12 instances.
'awareness amongst' - 3 instances.
 

2. A detailed study of / on energy efficiency is due out this week.

'study of' - 296 instances
'study for' - 269 instances
'study on' - 269 instances
'study in' - 142 instances
'study by' - 40 instances
'study at' - 14 instances
'study with' - 10 instances
'study into' - 9 instances
'study under' - 5 instances
'study within' - 4 instances
'study after' - 3 instances
'study about' - 3 instances

3. Banks must comply with the new rules or face stiff penalties.

'comply with' - 747 instances
 

4. The office has employed an accounting firm to conduct a review of the NGOs.

'conuct  *  review of' - 16 instances

 

5. ...... independent organization whose concern about / for the welfare of the needy is very close to Towngas.

'concern about' - 43 instances
'concern for' - 15 instances
 

6. To enhance the employees' knowledge of / in / on health and safety.

'knowledge of' - 135 instances
'knowledge in' - 15 instances
'knowledge on' - 9 instances
'knowledge about' - 6 instances
 

7. The Director explained that the new procedures will be different from / than those currently used.

'different from' - 258 instances
'different in' - 26 instances
'different for' - 16 instances
'different to' - 11 instances
'different than' - 4 instances (more common in American English)
'different at' - 3 instances
 

8. Companies should set up proper procedures for / in dealing with complaints.

'procedures for' - 161 instances
'procedures to + inf' - 91 instances
'procedures in' - 88 instances
'procedures on' - 26 instances
 

9. You can demand a poll (48 instances) (v + n)

10. There is a growing demand for investment products focusing on China.

'demand for' - 625 instances (v + p)
'demand from' - 60 instances (v + p)
'demand of' - 59 instances (v + p)
 

11. 'demand' is most frequently used as a nominal adjective.

'demand deposit(s)' - 78 instances (a + n)
'demand draft(s)' - 21 instances (a + n)
'growth' - 20 instances (a + n)
'fluctuations' - 4 instances (a + n)
'service' - 3 instances (a + n)
'trends' - 2 instances (a + n)
'facilities' - 1 instance (a + n)
     

12. Sample answer:

'objective evidence' - 99 instances (a + n)
'evidence of impairment' - 65 instances (n + p + n)
'sufficient evidence' - 42 instances (a + n)
'evidence relevant' - 35 instances (n + a)
 

13. Sample answer:

'vast majority' - 23 instances (a + n)
'vast experience(s)' - 9 instances (a + n)
'vast amount(s)' - 8 instances (a + n)
'vast range' - 4 instances (a + n)
'vast expanse' - 3 instances (a + n)
'vast application' - 2 instances (a + n)

14. Sample answer:

'evidence of' - 178 instances (n + p)
'evidence that *' - 29 instances (n + d + n)
'evidence to the contrary' - 10 instances (n + p + n)
'evidence about' - 5 instances (n + p)

 

15. 'opportunity/opportunities' shows a semantic preference for collocates which are positive in nature, and have connotations which are not pejorative.  For example, the concordance line below is typical of  'opportunity/opportunities':  

• .... offering rewarding career opportunities across all areas of our business ......

While the word 'possibilities' could here be used in place of 'opportunities', it does not have the same semantic preference as 'opportunity/opportunities', and may equally well be used with collocates which have a pejorative connotation, as the following concordance line shows:

• The possibility of further attacks on the currency ....

16.  'commit' tends to co-occur with words that are semantically related in that they are to do with crimes and/or behaviour that is socially disapproved of,  and has a semantic prosody of something bad. 'commit' also has another meaning in financial language of investing money, and in this may be said to be neutral. 

'commit * offence' - 4 instances
'commit * breach' - 1 instance

'commit/ted to' tends to co-occur with words that are semantically related in that they are to do with behaviour that is socially approved of,  and has a semantic prosody of something good.  An example is shown in the concordance line below:

• It is, in addition, committed to continuously improving these practices....
   

17. The term 'surrender' means an act of admitting defeat, especially when a military victory is acknowledged by the defeated party.  Here it is used metaphorically to mean giving up money, a policy or value before it has run its full period of time originally agreed.   It may be used as an adjective (eg 'surrender value'), a verb (eg 'policy is surrendered'), or a noun (eg 'maturities and surrenders').

18. Concordance line number 1 is used literally, ('shrug my shoulders'), and lines 2 and 3 are used metaphorically ('shrug off'). 

19. For the word 'plough' concordance line number 1 is used literally, ('ploughed after a maize crop'), and lines 2 and 3 are used metaphorically.  For the word 'seed', lines 3 and 7 are used literally, all the other lines are metaphorical. 
 

20. Typical words which are used either as subjects or objects are 'cost(s)', 'claims', 'fee(s)', 'losses' etc.  The semantic preference is for words having this sort of meaning, which is something gloomy or undesirable .

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