preposition

[jay2333]

can someone explain three sentences describing preposition role, especially 'of'. I have tried dictionary to find role of preposition in the sentences. lastly, is there a way understand them easily. I was told that preposition indicate quality as describe below, but i'm unsure about bottom three sentences. I tried dictionary.com to fit one of twelve definition to see where they fit. is there a way to easily understand sentence containing phrases 'of'
The preposition 'of' is indicating a quality or characteristic.

building of great height - very tall building
hole of great depth - very deep hole
cyanosis of increasing severity - cyanosis whose severity increases
bank balance of decreasing magnitude - bank balance that gets smaller

I'm unsure about the bottom sentences.



pneumonia that develops during the course of another disease.
second most cause of community pneumonia.
is composed of hundreds of closely related

 

[probus]

Hello jay2333. I take it you are a medical student. Rather than attempting to describe the many possible meanings of "of" (a huge task), I'll try to recast your three phrases without the use of "of".

pneumonia that develops during the course of another disease = pneumonia secondary to another disease

second most [frequent or common] cause of community pneumonia = the agent that gives rise to most community pneumonia after [the single more frequent cause]

is composed of hundreds of = is made from hundreds of

 

[2006]

can someone explain three sentences describing preposition role, especially 'of'. I have tried dictionary to find role of preposition in the sentences. lastly, is there a way understand them easily. I was told that preposition indicate quality as describe below, but i'm unsure about bottom three sentences. I tried dictionary.com to fit one of twelve definition to see where they fit. is there a way to easily understand sentence containing phrases 'of'
The preposition 'of' is indicating a quality or characteristic.

Of | Define Of at Dictionary.com
7.(used to indicate possession, connection, or association): the king of France; the property of the church.

I think definition number 7 is the best definition. But for all of the examples below, what comes after "of" modifies or expands on what becomes before "of". In most of your examples, a noun comes before "of" and what comes after "of" gives more information about the noun before "of".

building of great height what kind of building? a building of great height
hole of great depth what kind of hole? a hole of great depth
and so on with the sentences below

cyanosis of increasing severity - cyanosis whose severity increases
bank balance of decreasing magnitude - bank balance that gets smaller

I'm unsure about the bottom sentences.mostly the same as above

pneumonia that develops during the course of another disease.develops during what course? the course of another disease
second most common cause of community pneumonia. what cause? the cause of community pneumonia

is composed of hundreds of closely related people (for example) This one is different from the other examples in that "composed" is not a noun. But "hundreds of............people" still gives us information about the past participle "composed".


I hope the above helps you a little.

2006