Chaining and nesting prepositional phrases

You might have noticed that sentences can contain multiple prepositional phrases.

For example, how many prepositional phrases are in this snippet?

He was just lying in his bed looking at the ceiling.

Wonder(2012)

In this snippet, there are two actions, and each action has its own prepositional phrase. The first phrase tells us where the character was lying (in his bed) and the second tells us where he was looking (at the ceiling).

Here's an example of the same pattern:

He was just lying on the forest floor looking at beetles.

Try writing your own version of lying and looking, choosing different prepositional phrases.

Sometimes we want to say multiple things about a single action. To do this, we can chain prepositions together:

I waved at Dorothy from the bus.

Rocket Boys(1998)

Notice how this time both of the prepositional phrases are talking about the same action: waving.

The first phrase tells us who the narrator was waving to (at Dorothy), and the second tells us where they were waving from (the bus).

Here's a variation on the same pattern; using two prepositional phrases to describe one action.

Jonas fell into the pit after sunset.

Try writing your own simple sentence that chains two prepositional phrases.

Now let's take a look at this phrase that tells us more about the positioning of a branch:

It was entangled on the branch of a dead tree.

Wave(2013)

This prepositional phrase shows the thing (a dead tree) that the branch belongs or is attached to

Here's where things get interesting!

Let's highlight that same snippet in a way that tells us more about the action of being entangled:

It was entangled on the branch of a dead tree.

Wave(2013)

Do you see how from this perspective we now have one big prepositional phrase with a smaller prepositional phrase nested inside it?

The power of prepositional phrases comes from the way they can be chained or nested like this.

Short answer: no. While they look very similar, try changing the order of the phrases:

'I waved from the bus at Dorothy' is awkward but makes sense
'It was entangled of a dead tree on the branch' doesn't make sense

When we talk about nested prepositional phrases, we're talking about situations where the phrases need to be in a specific order to make the intended meaning.

The customers crowded around the dazzling display in the window.

Try writing your own version, with one preposition nested inside another.

Highlighting chained and nested prepositional phrases

Chaining and nesting makes things difficult from a Writelike highlighting point of view: do we highlight a whole nested phrase, or just each individual phrase?

There's no right or wrong answer; it all depends on what we want to focus on at the time. Sometimes it makes sense to highlight every chained or nested prepositional phrase individually, and sometimes it makes more sense to highlight all the phrases as one unit hanging off one preposition.

So depending on what we are talking about, we might use any of these approaches:

It was entangled on the branch of a dead tree.

Wave(2013)

It was entangled on the branch of a dead tree.

Wave(2013)

It was entangled on the branch of a dead tree.

Wave(2013)

If that's confusing, don't worry for now; it will be clearer in context.

The point is that these are all valid ways to highlight prepositional phrases, and the way we choose will depend on what we want to focus on at the time.

Here's something interesting. It's a little technical and a little obscure, but if you read it you'll learn something odd and interesting about the English language, and you never know when it might come in handy.

Let's look at those last two snippets side by side, highlighting all the prepositional phrases:

I waved at Dorothy from the bus.
It was entangled on the branch of a dead tree.

When set out like that, they look like they have the same structure, but we know that one is chained and the other is nested.

It's pretty confusing how two sentences that look like they have the same structure actually don't. And it gets weirder. Take a look at this sentence:

The wizard listened to the child with the wand.

Is the wizard using the wand to listen to the child? That would be a chain:

The wizard listened to the child with the wand.

Or is the child holding the wand? That would make the second prepositional phrase nested inside the first one:

The wizard listened to the child with the wand.

From just that sentence, we have no idea. That's called ambiguity—the sentence can mean more than one thing. (And an editor might tell the writer of that sentence to change it so it's no longer ambiguous.)

Prepositional phrases are tricky like that. Sometimes you just have to think about what makes the most sense. And sometimes that will mean looking at more than just the sentence with the prepositional phrases in it!

If you read this section, high five! Have a muffin on me! (I don't mean on me, I mean... never mind.)