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

From:Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...>
Date:Thursday, September 20, 2007, 23:18
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?

Are there any natlangs that are neither clearly Prepositional nor Postpositional?

Are there any natlangs in which Prepositions and Postpositions taken together
don't dominate the adpositions? Possible example; in Tagalog there seem to be
a whole lot of Impositions.

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?

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?

If so are these the same semantic groups as for the opposite situation
(above)?

If not, what are these semantic groups?

In either case, do the semantic groups occur in a hierarchy?

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)?

Reply

Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>