The central spatial prepositions

This chapter reviews the chief spatial prepositions at /әt = /, which describes a position of rest, and the pair dealing with motion, consisting of major member to /tә = / and minor member from /frәm = /. It considers at, to, and from as exclusively prepositions and generally realised as proclitics, emphasizing they are never used as adverbs and the noun phrase (NP) that follows them may not be omitted. To is the second most frequent preposition in the language with at and from being eighth and ninth most frequent. The chapter looks at the basic meanings of at, to, and from that are spatial with considerable extensions into more abstract senses. All three prepositions were present in Old English with meanings similar to those which they display today.