Talk:in spite
Status as a compound preposition[change]
It is difficult to see whether in spite is actually a compound preposition, although that is the analysis favoured here. The alternative is a "layered head analysis" (See CGEL p. 620). Under such an analysis, in spite is a prepositional phrase (PP) composed of a preposition and a noun functioning as its complement. This entire PP then takes a complement, usually another PP as in the following tree with the example of in case:--Brett 13:26, 17 November 2008 (UTC)
