3.3 Prepositional Phrases

The function of prepositional phrases in a sentence is to add meaning to the nouns and verbs. In some cases, a prepositional phrase adds minor details, but sometimes it is necessary for the sentence to make sense.

As we learned before, a preposition shows how a noun or pronoun relates to the rest of the sentence. Prepositional phrases are made of two basic parts: a preposition and its complement, which in most cases is a noun or pronoun.

Preposition + noun + preposition  + pronoun:

And this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts.

Preposition + noun phrase/adverbial of time (this also functions as an adverbial phrase ): 

I can't wait until next year when all of you are in Vietnam.

Preposition + -ing clause (adverb phrase):

I did not get to where i am by dwelling on the past.

This is a very rich sentence syntactically-wise:
to where i am: prepositional phrase
by dwelling: prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial phrase.
on the past: also a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial phrase.



Preposition + noun phrase:

I translated your speech into Pig Latin.

Adverb + Preposition + noun = Adverbial phrase:

It has come to my attention, completely by accident, that Donald Draper here is not who he says he is.

This is another example of how prepositional phrases can function as adverbial phrases.

Sources:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/clause-phrase-and-sentence/prepositional-phrases
http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/prepphrases.htm
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/prepositional-phrases