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Re: THEORY: Xpositions in Ypositional languages {X,Y}={pre,post}

From:Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...>
Date:Sunday, September 23, 2007, 9:12
In the last episode, (On Friday 21 September 2007 21:55:23), Eldin Raigmore
wrote:
> This is about prepositions in postpositional languages, and postpositions > in prepositional languages. > > Some of my questions were apparently answered in a paper by Dryer, > http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/DryerWalsAdpNoMap >.pd f > > On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:18:50 -0400, Eldin Raigmore > > <eldin_raigmore@...> wrote: > >Is it true that in nearly every natural language, either nearly every > > adposition is a Preposition and the language is clearly Prepositional, or > > else nearly every adposition is a Postposition and the language is > > clearly Postpositional? > > About 48% of Dryer's sample are postpositional; > about 43% are prepositional. > > >Are there any natlangs that are neither clearly Prepositional nor > >Postpositional? > > About 5% of Dryer's sample have more than one type of adposition with no > dominant type. > > >Are there any natlangs in which Prepositions and Postpositions taken > > together don't dominate the adpositions? > > About 3% of Dryer's sample have no adpositions; > and about 1% are inpositional. > > >Possible example; in Tagalog there seem to be a whole lot of Impositions. > > Apparently, the correct word is "inposition" rather than "imposition". > Dryer explains why he calls these infixes "adpositions". > (He also talks about adpositions which can appear both as prepositions and > as postpositions in the same language. I gather that's one meaning > of "circumposition"; the other meaning appears to be a preposition- > postposition pair which must be used together.) > > >In mostly-Prepositional languages that have a few Postpositions (like > > English's postposition "ago"), I have heard that there are a few semantic > > groups that these exceptional Postpositions tend to belong to, even > > cross-linguistically. That is, if a Prepositional language has a few > > Postpositions, and also has an adposition meaning "ago", then chances are > > that adposition is one of those Postpositions. > > > >Does anyone know what those semantic groups are? > > This question is still unanswered. > Also, does anyone know where that article or a similar article is? Or who > the author(s) (probably) is(are)? > > >In mostly-Postpositional languages that have a few Prepositions, are there > > a few semantic groups that these exceptional Prepositions tend to belong > > to, even cross-linguistically? > > Dryer's article seems to suggest "Yes". But I may be reading more into it > than is there. Does anyone know for sure? > > >If so are these the same semantic groups as for the opposite situation > >(above)? > > > >If not, what are these semantic groups? > > Dryer's article seems to suggest the two groups may not be the same. > > If two postpositional languages both have some prepositions, it seems, then > something with the meaning "without" is likely to be one such preposition, > IIUC. > > But if two prepositional languages both have some postpositions, it seems > something with the meaning "ago" is likely to be one such postposition. > > Again, perhaps I am reading into that article more than is there. > Does anyone know for sure? > > >In either case, do the semantic groups occur in a hierarchy? > > This question is still unanswered. Some people have told me they guess > "yes", but I don't remember seeing anything about this in any professional > paper. > > >Are there any semantic groups of adpositions that tend > > cross-linguistically to be Impositions or Circumpositions or > > Suprapositions or "Transpositions" (if there are such things)? > > I should revise this question. > > Are there any semantic groups of adpositions that tend cross-linguistically > to be Inpositions or Circumpositions? > > (As near as I can tell nobody thinks there are suprapositions or > transpositions.)
What would a supra- or transposition look like, anyhoo? Jeff -- "Please understand that there are small European principalities devoted to debating Tcl vs. Perl as a tourist attraction." -- Cameron Laird

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Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>