Abstract

English prepositions such as ‘of’, ‘at’, ‘in’ as well as some others may be used to show the relationships between an organization and its members.
This thesis deals with this use of prepositions in the following four cases:
1-1. Professor NAME+PREPOSITION+UNIVERSITY NAME (e. g. Professor John Smith of ABC University)
1-2. Mr./Mrs., etc. NAME+PREPOSITION+COMPANY NAME (e. g. Mr. John Smith at the ABC Company)
2-1. NAME, (a) professor+PREPOSITION+UNIVERSITY NAME (e. g. John Smith, professor at ABC University)
2-2. NAME, (a) POSITION NAME+PREPOSITION+COMPANY NAME (e. g. Mr. John Smith, a manager at the ABC Company)
This use of prepositions was researched through the implementation of questionnaires, news media analysis and the analysis of business communication examples. As a result, the following conclusions were made:
(1) ‘OF’ is the recommendable preposition for 1-1.
(2) ‘OF’ is the recommendable preposition for 1-2, but ‘AT’ is also possible.
(3) ‘AT’ is the recommendable preposition for 2-1.
(4) For 2-2, as a general rule, ‘OF’ is used in cases where the person of the title controls the whole of the organization; and ‘AT’ is used in cases where the person controls part of the organization.