adverbs - What are the historical processes of preposition coining in English?


RegDwight's excellent answer showing the historical usage of despite got me thinking about the processes by which new prepositions are coined. Prepositions are generally considered a closed class, and there are no active derivational processes for generating new ones--yet new prepositions do occasionally arise.


The 17-century examples in the linked question show despite being used as a sentential adverb taking a complement with of, though contemporary usage has despite as a preposition that directly governs its object. At some point the of started to disappear from "despite of", and the word despite was reanalyzed as a preposition rather than an adverb. This got me thinking:



  • What other words are documented to have transitioned from adverbs to prepositions?

  • Do any words other than adverbs ever make this leap? Are there any nouns or verbs that have somehow transitioned to prepositions?




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