Prepositions in English argument structure
The historical development of prepositions in verbal complementation is particularly interesting, as they saw a great deal of change over time: they have dramatically increased in frequency from the 12th century onwards, and are coming to fulfil more and more functions.
Changes in progress can be observed in certain varieties of English as a Second Language, in which prepositional patterns are even more frequent than in Standard English. In short, the English language appears to have become ever more ‘preposition-friendly’.