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Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 15: Selected papers from 'Going Romance' 30, Frankfurt
Edited by Ingo Feldhausen, Martin Elsig, Imme Kuchenbrandt and Mareike Neuhaus
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 15] 2019
► pp. 277–294

Chapter 14
De-prefixed spatial Ps in medieval French

ORCID logo | Universität Stuttgart

We examine a series of medieval French spatial Ps with de- prefixes (de-forms; e.g. dessus, dedans), showing that they display a combination of preposition-, adverb- and noun-like syntactic properties which distinguish them from their corresponding base forms (e.g. sus, ens). We argue that these properties can best be accounted for by considering de-forms to be modifiers of a null PLACE noun. Finally, we suggest that during the medieval period, de-forms are reanalysed as nouns, which causes wide-ranging changes in their distribution, including the development of complex prepositions such as au-dessus de.

Keywords: Old French, preposition, spatial adverb, locative, de- prefix, particle
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
    • 2.1Preposition-like properties
    • 2.2Adverb-like properties
    • 2.3Noun-like properties
  • 3.Previous relevant analyses
    • 3.1Axial parts
    • 3.2Null place noun
  • 4.The analysis of de-forms in medieval French
    • 4.1The analysis of de-forms
    • 4.2The reanalysis of de-forms
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 October 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.15.14rai
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