conjunctions - Why would you call "before" a preposition when it precedes a clause?


I'm new here & don't know all the etiquette & ins & outs, but I have a question about something posted in another thread.



Modern grammar, however, recognises that prepositions can take many different types of complement, or may take none at all. In the following examples we see prepositions which are taking different types of complement.


Let’s meet before the concert starts.


Let’s meet after the concert.


Take it out of the box.


I’ve never seen this before.



If you call "before" in "before the concert starts" is a preposition, what would you call "although" in "Although he didn't know the answer, he raised his hand"? I've been running "although" through my head, & I can't come up with an instance where it could precede a noun phrase. I'd call both "before" (as it's used here) & "although" subordinating conjunctions. If you don't call "before" a subordinating conjunction, what ties the two clauses ("Let's meet" & "the concert starts") together? If you tell me there's an understood "that," I hope you also tell me you're coming from a transformational grammar point of view. I'm old school & have hated transformational grammar since the day I met it!


(Also, I'd call the last use of "before" an adverb, but calling it an objectless preposition doesn't bother me nearly as much as calling the other one a preposition.)




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