English characterize prepositions as words that take objects in the form of noun phrases. Though the prototypical prepositional phrase consists of a noun phrase complement following a preposition, prepositions can take a wider variety of complements than just noun phrases. English prepositions can also take clauses, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and other prepositional phrases as complements, though they occur less frequently than noun phrase complements. Noun phrase complements Prepositions typically take noun phrases as complements. For example, the prepositional phrase on the table consists of the head on and the complement the table, and the prepositional phrase in the area consists of the head in and the complement the area. By analogy with noun phrase complements of verbs, noun phrase complements of prepositions are occasionally called objects in grammars of English. Like objects of verbs, objects of preposition typically carry accusative case. Thus, we expect to see prepositional phrases like near me and at her rather than near I and at she because me and her are accusative case pronouns while I and she are nominative case pronouns. Indeed, some grammars treat the inability of prepositions to have nominative case pronouns as a defining characteristic of prepositions. An exception to this rule about case seems to occur when the preposition takes a coordinated pair of objects, such as someone and I. In these cases, usage varies, and the pronoun can carry either nominative or accusative case. For example, users of English might say "between you and I" or "between you and me". Some commentators have called the former "illiterate" and a sign that the English language is deteriorating, according to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, nominative case pronouns as part of a coordinated pair of prepositional objects have occurred in respected works of literature and are actually more characteristic of educated varieties of English than of less educated varieties. In some cases, the object NP in the PP is atypical in that it lacks a determiner. For example, I'm at school is grammatical, even though an NP headed by the singular noun school usually requires a determiner; *They're building new school is not grammatical because it is lacking a determiner. Other examples are in hospital and to bed. Typically the meaning here implies a purpose. For example, going to the bed does not suggest sleeping in the way that going to bed does. Clause complements Prepositions that take a clause