One way we share spatial information is through the use of prepositions to describe relationships between entities in the world. These utterances involve at minimum two objects: a reference object (the ground) and a located object (the figure) as well as the preposition that describes their relationship.
http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/papers/Files/Lockwood541.pdf
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in English, simply prepositions), are a class of words that express spatial or temporal relations (in, under, towards, before) or marking various semantic roles (of, for).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition
English generally has prepositions rather than postpositions – words such as in, under and of precede their objects, as in in England, under the table, of Jane – although there are a small handful of exceptions including ago and notwithstanding, as in three days ago and financial limitations notwithstanding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition
The complement is sometimes called the object of the adposition. The resulting phrase, formed by the adposition together with its complement, is called an adpositional phrase or prepositional phrase (PP) (or for specificity, a postpositional or circumpositional phrase).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition
A preposition or postposition typically combines with a noun or pronoun, or more generally a noun phrase, this being called its complement, or sometimes object. A preposition comes before its complement; a postposition comes after its complement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition
Vandeloise convincingly argues that it is precisely this subjective element which makes a standard geometrical account unfeasible. This striking study of the meaning and use of the major spatial prepositions in French provides valuable insight into how the human mind organizes spatial relationships.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3628047.html
Comparison of the prepositions contre and sur. 12.6. The relation between the prepositions derriere derrière and. sous. 13 the prepositions / dans hors de and the / container contained. relation.13. 1 topological relations between the objects of the prepositions / dans hors. de.13. 2
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3628047.html
Some examples of the use of English prepositions are given below. In each case, the prepositional phrase appears in italics, and the preposition within it appears in bold. The word to which the phrase expresses a relation – that is, the word to which the prepositional phrase is an adjunct or complement – is. .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition
Cloth $113.00 ISBN: 9780226847276 Published October 1991. This striking study of the meaning and use of the major spatial prepositions in French provides valuable insight into how the human mind organizes spatial relationships.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3628047.html
The representation of objects. 3.1. The idealization of the terms of a spatial relation. 3.2. Intrinsic orientation of objects. 3.3. The contextual orientation of objects. 4. Concepts involved in the description of spatial prepositions. 4.1.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3628047.html
what is a spatial preposition
A spatial proposition describes relationships between entities in the world..