since before

[Debpriya]

"I have lived here since before the war."
Is this sentence grammatically correct ?
Shouldn't the correct form be - (since + a point of time), where the point of time is a noun ?

 

[5jj]

"I have lived here since before the war."
Is this sentence grammatically correct ? YES
Shouldn't the correct form be - (since + a point of time), where the point of time is a noun ? NO

You are right in your since + point in time, but the the point(or period) in time does not have to be a noun, as shown in the following:

I have lived here since...

... the war
... before the war
... the war ended
... I left school
... 1945.

 

[TheParser]

"I have lived here since before the war."
Is this sentence grammatically correct ?
Shouldn't the correct form be - (since + a point of time), where the point of time is a noun ?

***** NOT a teacher *****


Debpriya,

I may be wrong (repeat: wrong), but I think that some books

explain two prepositions together like that by saying that

a sentence such as yours is a short way to say:

I have lived here since a time before the war.

We can then say that "a time" is the noun object of the

preposition "since" and that "the war" is the noun object of the

preposition "before." The prepositional phrase "before the war"

modifies (belongs to/ is placed under/ further explains) the

noun "time." The prepositional phrase "since a time" in turn

modifies the verb "have lived."

*****


Here is an example from one of my books of two prepositions together:

Come out from behind those whiskers.

The author says that it is probably an ellipsis (missing words) of:

Come out from your hiding place behind those whiskers.


***** NOT a teacher *****

 

[5jj]

I think that some books

explain two prepositions together like that by saying that

a sentence such as yours is a short way to say:

I have lived here since a time before the war.

I have encountered suggestions like this, but I prefer to analyse the language as it is, not as we think someone intended it to be. There is no need to imagine a 'missing' noun such as time, unless we believe in a rule that prepositions must be followed by a noun.