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Article published In: Into adpositions: New formal perspectives on the structure of the PP and its variation
Edited by Víctor Acedo-Matellán, Theresa Biberauer, Jaume Mateu and Anna Pineda
[Linguistic Variation 21:1] 2021
► pp. 135–173

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Locative Ps as general relators

Location, direction, DOM in Romance

 | Università di Firenze
 | Università di Firenze
 | Università di Firenze
Published online: 8 September 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.00035.fra
Abstract
Based mostly on the Romance languages, we provide evidence for the conclusion that oblique adpositions involved in the encoding of location and direction do not contribute a specific, fixed spatial meaning. On the contrary, they are general relators, relating a complement to an event by establishing an inclusion relation between them. Locatives are specializations of the basic relational inclusion content. State-in, motion-to and motion-from interpretations depend on the interaction of these simple relators with the structure of the event. Specifically, the relator may attach at the level of the Result phrase (goal, motion-to) or at the level of the Cause layer (source, motion-from). Furthermore, the Romance languages provide evidence for differential encoding of non-animate vs. animate location, which we refer to as locative DOM, presenting and discussing various instances of it.
Article outline
  • 1.Issues and goals
    • 1.1Basic proposal
    • 1.2Some basic evidence
  • 2.The Italian a ‘at, to’/ da ‘from, by’ system
    • 2.1Italian a ‘at, to’
    • 2.2Italian da ‘from, by’
    • 2.3Italian a as agent/causer
  • 3.Crosslinguistic evidence
  • 4.Locative DOM
    • 4.1Complex adpositions
    • 4.2Simple adpositions and where DOM
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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