What is "preverb"

n. 1 (context grammar English) Any of a class of words in the Chinese language whose function is analogous to the cases, prepositions(,) and postpositions of other languages. 2 (context grammar English) A verbal prefix in the Algonquin languages whose function is analogous to the adjective of other languages.

Although not widely accepted in linguistics, the term preverb is used in Caucasian (including all three families: Northwest Caucasian, Northeast Caucasian and Kartvelian), Caddoan, Athabaskan, and Algonquian linguistics to describe certain elements prefixed to verbs. In the context of Indo-European languages, the term is usually used for separable verb prefixes.

Theoretically, any prefix could be called a preverbal element. However, in practice, the term preverb applies more narrowly in those families and refers to a prefixed element that is normally outside the premise of verbal morphology like locations of noun elements or, less often, noun elements themselves.