Table 25 lists the subset of prepositions used productively with a temporal meaning: they are characterized by the fact that they can take any nominal complement referring to an entity occupying a fixed position/interval on the timeline.

preposition	example	translation
gedurende	gedurende de voorstelling	during the performance
na	na de les	after the lesson
sinds	sinds de laatste vergadering	since the last meeting
tijdens	tijdens de les	during the lesson
tot (en met)	tot (en met) mijn vakantie	up to and including my vacation
tussen	tussen kerst en Nieuwjaar	between Christmas and New Year
vanaf	vanaf mijn vakantie	from my vacation
voor	voor mijn vakantie (also: tien voor vijf)	before my vacation ten (minutes) to five (4.50 h)

The preposition sindssince has the more formal Dutch equivalent sedert. The preposition vanaf can be replaced by the latinate preposition per, followed by a date: vanaf/per 23 februarifrom February 23.

The prepositions in Table 26 differ from those in Table 25 in that they impose more specific selection restrictions on their complements; they require a complement that refers to a specific time, date, or well-defined period of time (such as a segment of the day, holidays such as Easter and Christmas, and so on). Although the list of possible complements in the fourth column of Table 26 is not exhaustive, it should give an inkling of the restrictions imposed on the complements. The prepositional phrases preceded by a number sign are possible but cannot be used with a temporal meaning, so we refrain from giving a translation of the prepositions involved.

	example	translation	possible complements
in	in de ochtend	during the morning	segments of the day, months, seasons, years
	#in de voorstelling	— the performance
met	met kerstmis	during Christmas	holidays, seasons (except lente ‘spring’)
	#met de les	— the lesson
om	om tien over drie	at ten past three	times of the day
	#om de vakantie	— the vacation
omstreeks	omstreeks kerstmis	around Christmas	holidays, dates, months, seasons, years
	*omstreeks de les	— the lesson
op	op kerstavond	on Christmas eve	parts of holidays, dates
	#op de vergadering	— the meeting
rond	rond kerstmis	around Christmas	holidays, dates
	#rond de voorstelling	— the performance
tegen	tegen kerstmis	towards Christmas	holidays, times, dates, months, seasons
	#tegen de les	— the lesson
van	van de week	during last/next week	seasons, week ‘week’, weekend ‘weekend’
	#van de les	— the lesson

Note in passing that, as an alternative to (358a), it is possible to use example (358b). In this use, the complement of the preposition bij must be a numeral followed by the affix -en. The preposition naar in (358c) is similar to bij in this respect. The examples in (358) all express that it is nearly 9 o'clock.

This “approximation” meaning of tegen is even more salient in (359), where it is used as a kind of adverbial modifier: the phrase tegen de twee uur seems to be more or less synonymous with ongeveer twee uur. More discussion of the approximative use of prepositions can be found in Section .

Another special case worth mentioning is (360a). The PP met de dag does not refer to a specific time on the timeline, but rather functions like a frequency adverb like elke dagevery day. However, it differs from the regular frequency adverbs in that it only occurs in accumulative constructions such as (360a).

From a semantic point of view temporal prepositions are two-place predicates that establish a temporal relation between their two arguments: the referents of these arguments are situated on the timeline in positions relative to each other. In (361a), for example, the temporal PP voor de vakantiebefore the vacation places the subject of the clause de vergaderingthe meeting at a position on the timeline preceding the position of the complement of voor, de vakantiethe vacation; this can be represented by the logical formula in (361b) or the graph in (361c).

If we consider the timeline as a representation of “temporal space”, we can call de vergadering the located object and de vakantie the reference object, just as in the case of spatial prepositions. However, since the interpretation of the temporal prepositions in Table 25 is largely determined by the properties of the one-dimensional timeline, it does not seem useful to make a distinction between inherent and absolute interpretations, since this distinction can only be made by appealing to at least two dimensions. This leaves us with the question of whether there are temporal PPs with a deictic interpretation. Some possible cases of such deictic PPs are given in Table 27. However, we will show that there are reasons for assuming that these PPs are not temporal in nature.

preposition	example	translation
binnen	binnen tien minuten	within an hour
in	in tien minuten	(with)in ten minutes
over	over tien minuten (also: tien over vijf)	in ten minutes ten (minutes) past five (5.10 h)
om	om de week (lit.: around the week)	once every two weeks

In the examples in (362), the PPs denote a time span of ten minutes calculated from the speech time. This means that the complement of the preposition does not act as the reference point from which the position of the located object is calculated. In fact, the complements of the prepositions do not occupy any place on the timeline at all, and are therefore not even suitable to act as a reference point.

The fact that the complement of the preposition does not seem to play a role in the computation of the temporal location of the located object casts serious doubt on any claim that we are dealing with temporal prepositional phrases. Instead, the PPs in (362) seem to play a role similar to that of the manner adverb snelsoon or the adverbial element zo in (363).

Thinking of the PPs in (362) as adverbial modifiers may also account for the fact that they can be used as modifiers of temporal adpositional phrases; for example, the PP binnen tien minuten in (364a) has a function similar to that of the adjectival modifier kortshortly in (364b).

The PP headed by om in (365a) does not seem to function as a temporal PP either. Instead, it seems to function as an adverbial phrase of frequency, comparable to adjectives like regelmatigregularly or wekelijksweekly in (365b). This usage is discussed in more detail in Section .

We conclude that the prepositional phrases in Table 27 are not temporal in nature.

The discussion of (361) has indicated that the semantics of temporal and spatial adpositional phrases are similar in the sense that they can both be considered as two-place predicates. However, the temporal relations that can be expressed are simpler than the spatial relations, due to the fact that space is three-dimensional, while the timeline is only one-dimensional. An exhaustive description of the spatial relations minimally requires relations like in front of, at, behind, next to, above and below (cf. Figure 14 in Section 32.3.1.2, sub IIA). Temporal relations can be exhaustively described with the three relations before, simultaneous, and after, as in (366); cf. Comrie (1985).

Although spatial and the temporal prepositions can be described in similar ways, there is a conspicuous difference between the two. Spatial PPs are often used both as complementives and as adverbial phrases, whereas temporal PPs are mainly used as adverbial phrases; although the complementive use of temporal PPs does not seem impossible (example (361a) may be a case at hand), this use is rare. This difference in usage is probably related to the ontological nature of the entities involved. Whereas spatial adpositional phrases locate objects or events in space, temporal adpositional phrases locate events on the timeline. Since objects are typically denoted by noun phrases and events by verbal projections, spatial adpositional phrases can be predicated of both noun phrases and verbal projections, whereas temporal adpositional phrases are typically predicated of verbal projections. With this in mind, we can continue to discuss the temporal relations depicted in (366) in more detail.