The preposition goes in a slashed line below the word it modifies. The modified word could a noun, an adjective or a verb phrase.
If the word modified is a noun whatever its position, the prepositional phrase is adjectival because it describes a noun.
If the word modified is an adjective or the verb phr
ase, the prepositional phrase is adverbial because it is describing or giving more information about them.
With my little brother, I went to the park.
In this sentence, there are two prepositional phrases. The first one is “with my little brother” and the second one is “to the park” Both of them are adverb P.P because they are giving information or describing how the verb occurs.
The first college radio station began broadcasting in 1920, from Union College, under the personal call letters of Wendell King, an African-American student at the school.
In this sentence there are four P.P. The first one is “in 1920” which is an adverbial P.P that modifies “begin” The action of beginning something happened in 1920.
The P.P “From union College” tells where the action of beginning happened. It is an adverbial P.P that should go below the word it modifies (began)
“Under the personal call letters” is a very tricky prepositional phrase. One person may wonder! Where should I place this prep
osition in this diagram? Let’s answer this question!
Is it saying how, where, when or why the action of beginning happened?
If you put “under the personal letters below “began” you’re saying that the Radio station started because someone sent a call letter asking for it to happen.
If you put “under the personal letters below “broadcasting” you’re saying that the action of broadcasting something started with a personal call letter of the audience.
What association makes more sense? This P.P must go below broadcasting.
During 442 Theodosius recalled his troops from Sicily and ordered a large issue of new coins to finance operations against the Huns
“During 442” is a P.P that starts the sentence. As a general rule, all the P.P’s that start a sentence are adverb prepositional phrases. This P.P is giving information about when Theodosius recalled his troops and ordered a large issue. As it modifies both verbs, it must go on a shared line between them.
The preposition “From Sicily” is tricky. If you put this P.P below Theodosius you would say that Theodosius` location at the time of recalling and ordering is Sicily, however, the troop’s location is Sicily. This P.P must go below “troops”.
“Of new coins” is giving more information about what the issue is about, not how the order was performed. It is adjectival.
“To finance” is not a P.P. It has the same treatment as if it were one however. Notice that “finance takes a D.O (Direct object)
“Against the Huns” is the last prepositional phrase in the sentence. It gives information about the purpose of those operations not how, why, where or when the operations were financed.
Advice: To analyze sentences in diagramming, you should be very thoughtful of the sentence sense. Ask yourself questions! Be logic! A word that seems to be subtle might change the whole meaning of a sentence.
Prepositional phrases are usually tricky! Don’t feel bad if you haven’t gotten the handle of it yet. With a good training, you can master this part of sentence diagramming very fast.
