Abstract: It is generally believed in traditional grammar books that prepositional phrases are often used as adverbials or complements. "Prepositional phrases are often used as adverbials", there is no doubt about it, so can prepositional phrases also be used as complements? For example: the prepositional phrase "on the table" is used as a complement after the verb "put". In this way, in addition to being an adverbial, the prepositional phrase also has the function of serving as a complement.
Since the prepositional phrase "bashu" is used as an adverbial before the verb "put", it is valid. So, what is the grammatical structure of adding the predicate phrase "on the table" after the verb "put"? This paper mainly introduces the research overview of prepositional phrases as complements, focusing on the grammatical and semantic features of prepositional phrases as complements and the concurrent grammatical functions and semantic features of words such as "to, in, and to".
Regarding the definition of prepositional phrase complements, Zhang Chunjian said: "In general grammar books, a structure formed by placing certain prepositions in front of nouns or other words is called a prepositional structure. If this prepositional structure is followed by verbs or adjectives , is called a prepositional structure as a complement." That is, a prepositional phrase complement.
Regarding the research on prepositional complements, many scholars began to study whether prepositional phrases can be used as complements and which prepositions can form prepositional phrases as complements with introducing components since the 1950s.