Analysis of this sentence and the "through via" usage within

Question

I had a class today and discussed the usage of these two adjacent prepositions (Can two prepositions be used one after the other? "my guideline and reference in this case") with a student who believes it sounds OK to him when two prepositions are used in the following way and he doesn't see any errors in the syntax of the sentence.

The context of the sentence:

AWS doesn't leave us unequipped to secure ourselves. For example, every domain that the customer has control over, they have provided us with the necessary tools to achieve optimum security.

A brief list:

Network Security

Network firewalls - giving us the ability to create VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) with private networks.Connectivity options which enable private, or dedicated, connections from our office or on-premises environment.DDoS mitigation technologies that can be applied to layer 3 or 4 and layer 7.Automatic encryption of all traffic coming through via AWS global and regional networks."

The text/sentence:

Automatic encryption of all traffic coming through via AWS global and regional networks.

I have two issues with it:

1. adjacent prepositions
2. redundancy

Source: https://hackernoon.com/devsecops-and-devops-a-deep-dive-j62k34r3

Thanks!

Answer 1

Through and via are both prepositions, but they are not used together.

To come through is indeed a phrasal verb:

If something comes through, it arrives, especially after some procedure has been carried out.

• A huge cheer of relief went up when the result came through. (Collins)

If you replace this phrasal verb with a synonym such as arrive, you get:

Automatic encryption of all traffic arriving via AWS global and regional networks.

Via is defined by Cambridge as

using a particular machine, system, or person to send or receive something; by way of, or by use of:

• Reports are coming in via satellite.

In this example you can see another instance where the preposition of the phrasal verb is juxtaposed to the preposition via that is linked to the noun "satellite".

Though these two prepositions stand next to each other in the sentence, they are linked to different words. This is not the case of compound prepositions connected to the same word (Your dictionary) as in:

He picked up the penny from beneath the couch.

Edit: Prompted by a comment, I will add another source for a compound preposition, though I am not sure it is more "suitable":

He didn't go to university because of his grades. (Advanced English Grammar)

Neither is this a phrasal verb with two particles which is called a three-part phrasal verb, such as:

go through with = to do something you promised to do, even though you don’t really want to do it:

• She went through with the wedding, even though she had doubts. (English at home)

Answer 2

There are legitimate objections to some aspects of the full passage quoted, but not to the particular pairing.

The first preposition is, in effect part of the verb 'come through'. It behaves as a kind of 'suffix' to the verb 'come' (classicists might describe it as 'enclytic' - literally 'leaning back'). The second, via, is a straightforward preposition, literally 'placement before' the noun that follows.

Answer 3

English uses adjacent prepositions all the time. Where does this idea come from that it's wrong? 'Out of', 'away from', 'over behind', 'down under'... infinite combinations are possible and used all the time.