The present scheme emerged out of extensive descriptive work with corpus data.
Given the abundance of rare preposition usages, this document does not claim to cover every possible role/function combination for English, let alone other languages.
Below are the few categorical restrictions that seem warranted for English.

##Supersenses that are purely abstract

[ss Participant] and [ss Configuration] are intended only to organize subtrees of the hierarchy, and not to be used directly.

##Supersenses that are never used in English

[ss Content] is not expected to apply to English prepositions or possessives as either role or function. It is included in the hierarchy for use by other languages.

##Supersenses that cannot serve as functions

For English prepositions and possessives, **[ss Experiencer], [ss Stimulus], [ss Originator], [ss Recipient], [ss SocialRel], [ss Org], [ss OrgMember], [ss Ensemble], and [ss QuantityValue] can only serve as scene roles, not functions.**
Though scenes of perception, transfer, and interpersonal/organizational relationships are fundamental in language, they always seem to exploit construals from other domains (motion, causation, possession, and so forth).
(They may be marked more canonically by other English constructions, or by adpositional and case constructions in other languages.)

For example, [exref 001 "Constraints on Role and Function Combinations"] is clearly [ss Recipient] at the scene level—Sam acquires possession of the box—but also fits the criteria for [ss Goal] because Sam is an endpoint of motion (and [p en/to] frequently marks [ss Goal]s that are not [ss Recipient]s).
[exref 002 "Constraints on Role and Function Combinations"] and [exref 003 "Constraints on Role and Function Combinations"] reflect [ss Recipient--Agent] and [ss Recipient--Gestalt] construals, respectively.

- [ex 001 "Give the box [p en/to] Sam. ([ss Recipient--Goal])"]

- [ex 002 "the box received [p en/by] Sam ([ss Recipient--Agent])"]

- [ex 003 "Sam[p en/'s] receipt of the box ([ss Recipient--Gestalt])"]

Though the [ss Goal] construal is arguably the most canonical expression of [ss Recipient], there is no preposition with a primary meaning of [ss Recipient] independent of one of these other domains.

**Additional constraints on functions arise in the context of specific constructions.** For instance,

###1. the s-genitive requires either [ss Possessor] or [ss Gestalt] as its function ([Genitives/Possessives](/en/genitivespossessives))

###2. passive [p en/by] requires [ss Agent], [ss Force], or [ss Causer] as its function ([Passives](/en/passives))

##Supersenses that cannot serve as roles

In the present scheme, there are no supersenses that are restricted to serving as functions.

##No temporal-locational construals

**Temporal prepositions never occur with a function of [ss Locus], [ss Path], or [ss Extent].**

Languages routinely borrow from spatial language to describe time, and spatial cognition may underlie temporal cognition (e.g., [Lakoff and Johnson, 1980](/bib/lakoff_and_johnson_1980/), [Núñez and Sweetser, 2006](/bib/nunez_and_sweetser_2006/), [Casasanto and Boroditsky, 2008](/bib/casasanto_and_boroditsky_2008/)).
A liberal use of construal would treat <i>arriving [p en/in] the afternoon</i> as [ss Time--Locus], <i>sleeping [p en/through] the night</i> as [ss Duration--Path], <i>running [p en/for] 20 minutes</i> as [ss Duration--Extent], and so forth.
However, for simplicity and practicality, we elect not to annotate [ss Locus], [ss Path], or [ss Extent] construals on ordinary temporal adpositions. Thus:

- [ex 004 "arriving [p en/in] the afternoon ([ss Time])"]

- [ex 005 "sleeping [p en/through] the night ([ss Duration])"]

- [ex 006 "running [p en/for] 20 minutes ([ss Duration])"]

[ss Time--Direction] is possible, however, as are other atemporal functions:

- [ex 007 "Schedule the appointment [p en/for Time--Direction] Monday. ([ss Time--Direction])"]

- [ex 008 "January [p en/of Time--Whole] last year ([ss Time--Whole])"]

- [ex 009 "Will you attend Saturday[p en/'s Time--Gestalt] class? ([ss Time--Gestalt])"]

- [ex 010 "It took a year[p en/'s Duration--Gestalt] work to finish the book. ([ss Duration--Gestalt])"]

Note that the above is qualified to ‘ordinary temporal adpositions’.
**When the first argument of a comparative construction is marked with [p en/as], the function is always [ss Extent], even if the scene role is temporal.**
See [Comparatives and Superlatives](/en/comparatives_and_superlatives).

##Construals where the function supersense is an ancestor or descendant of the role supersense

Ordinarily, if a construal holds between two (distinct) supersenses, these are from different branches of the hierarchy.
In a few cases, however, one is the ancestor of the other.

### Role is ancestor of function

1. Setting events or situations with a salient spatial metaphor are [ss Circumstance--Locus] or [ss Circumstance--Path].

2. Fictive motion (the extension of a normally dynamic preposition to a static spatial scene) can warrant [ss Locus--Goal] or [ss Locus--Source], as discussed under [ss Locus].

3. Complete contents of containers are [ss Characteristic--Stuff].

### Function is ancestor of role

1. Some s-genitives are annotated as [ss Whole--Gestalt]: see [Genitives/Possessives](/en/genitivespossessives).

2. When an organization is framed via a genitive construction in relation to its members, [ss Org--Gestalt] is used.

3. For *amount*/*number*/etc. + [p en/of] + ITEM, [ss QuantityItem--Gestalt] is used.

4. When a locative PP is coerced to a goal, as with <i>put</i>, [ss Goal--Locus] is used.