Locative Ps as general relators
Location, direction, DOM in Romance
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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