Prepositionpronoun

Prepositionpronoun is a coined term used in linguistics to refer to pronouns that appear in a prepositional phrase as the object of the preposition. It is not a standard grammatical category, but it describes how languages mark the relationship between a preposition and its nominal element.

In English, prepositionpronouns are the pronouns in the objective case: me, you, him, her, it, us, them. After any preposition, the pronoun takes the object form (to me, with you, for them). The subject form (I, you, he) is generally not used after prepositions. Note that some languages have fused forms or contractions that differ from the English pattern.

In many other languages, the corresponding pronouns appear as separate words or fused clitics after prepositions. Spanish commonly yields fused forms like conmigo and contigo (con + mí/ti-go forms in practice), French uses moi after a preposition as in avec moi, and German uses mir, dir, ihm after mit. Some languages maintain a clear separation between preposition and pronoun, while others combine them into a single clitic or compound. The term prepositionpronoun helps describe these oblique-pronoun realizations across languages.

From a syntactic perspective, prepositionpronouns are often analyzed as the oblique complement of a preposition, sometimes generated in an internal object position or in a separate functional projection. In language teaching, recognizing the requirement for the object form after prepositions helps learners avoid using nominative or other non-object forms.

Examples include English: to me, for you, with him, about her; Spanish: conmigo, contigo, con él/ella; French: avec moi; German: mit mir, mit dir. This illustrates cross-linguistic variation in how prepositional pronouns surface.