The smallest words can have the biggest impact on us. And for us.
(Yup, missed a few days again. Like 300 of them.)
I'm weird. I enjoy grammar. I like studying the way words fit together and how they function together to make up a language. Concepts like "perfect passive participle", besides being great alliteration, are fascinating to me in terms of meaning.
In that way, maybe grammar isn't all that much different than team sports, a person's body, or even, yes, the Church. Individuals (whether words, players, or members) don't exist or function in isolation. There are connections between them, and it's these connections that define how well the thing does.
That's why prepositions are the most important things in language.
Prepositions are these little connecting words that define the relationship between other words. And that's why they're the most important. They're like the pass between players on a basketball, hockey, football, or futbol team. Within the body, they're not the bones or muscles, but the body wouldn't be a body without them; they're the tendons and ligaments holding everything together.
Think about the following sentences:
She talked to him.
She talked about him.
She talked at him.
Each one of these means something different even though they all have the same subject (she), the same verb (talked), and the same object (him). The only difference in the words is in the little preposition. And that one little word makes all the difference. Why? It defines the relationship of her to him. And it also defines the tenor of the talking.
It's true that every piece of those sentences is important. Sure, subjects can be explicit or implicit, but there's always a subject. There always needs to be some kind of action expressed. There always needs to be some kind of object (though, of course, it can be implicit too).
But it's the thing that relates the subject to the object that makes all the difference. How are they connected? What's going on there? Is it positive or negative or indifferent or (more likely) some combination of all of them? There is so much meaning packed into a word that's maybe only two or three letters long.
Standing on its own, this short post is maybe of little import. Maybe it will feel to you like trivia. Stick with me, though. My hope is that over the next few posts, the connective tissue—the ligament of language, the mighty preposition—will prove itself to you.