Indonesian has three locative prepositions, namely, di, pada and dalam—roughly corresponding to the English 'on, in, at' - which are often interchangeable. That is, one can be substituted for another for the same spatial, abstract, or temporal configuration without an immediately apparent difference in meaning. Even though interchangeability of prepositions is common in Indonesian discourse and has been observed by some, surprisingly there is no explanation available on this aspect of preposition use.

This study aims to address the interchangeability issue beyond a brief mention and will examine the uses of the prepositions in speech and writing and in different types of discourse (or genre). It is hypothesized that overlaps in the semantic range provide speakers with alternatives for expressing the same situation, but preposition selection is motivated not only by semantic considerations, but also by pragmatic and discourse-related factors. Such things as whether the message is spoken or written, to whom it is conveyed, and for what purpose it is conveyed, all correlate in motivating preposition choice.

With regard to language specific scope, this study is intended to fill a gap in the current studies of Indonesian prepositions by providing a descriptive account of prepositional meanings that reflects more closely the range of actual uses by speakers in spoken and written discourses. It also aims to address the issue of preposition alternation, which has received little attention in previous studies.