Re: Set of basic adpositions

Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
> R A Brown skrev:
>> Hi all!
>>
>> On page 87 of "Describing Morphosyntax", Thomas Payne wrote: "The set
>> of basic adpositions in most languages is rather small, consisting of
>> perhaps five or six forms."
[snip]
>
> I don't know about adpositions, but a common
> small system of local cases is
>
> * Locative   = 'X is at Y',
> * Lative     = 'X moves to(wards) Y',
> * Separative = 'X moves (away) from Y',
Sort of like Malay/Indonesian prepositions _di_, _ka/ke_ and _dari_
respectively.

Of course adpositions do express other relations besides local ones. I
had thought of using three adpositions, like the above, where they would
also double up for temporal relations 'time when', 'time until' & 'time
since' respectively.

[snip]
> The only really freaquent further simplification,
> short of languages with only one case covering all
> oblique functions is to have a single (set of) form(s)
> covering the functions of both locative and lative.
Like the Romancelangs & modern Greek. How common is this in non-IE
languages? Also, do we find a similar use of a single form for both
'time when' and 'time until'?

> There may be freak languages which merge lative
> and separative or even locative and separative,
> but I can't imagine the latter in particular
> being a very useful distinction and hence to be
> stable.
Nor I - but examples of all three being expressed by the same adposition
are know, cf., Tok Pisin _blong_ and Tzotzil _ta_.

Then there are other relationships to consider, such as 'with' (both
associative & instrumental).

At the moment I'm considering a small set similar to modern Greek's
_se_, _apo_, _me_ and _gia_ - tho I'm still undecided instead of _se_ I
should two adpositions, one for locative & the other for (al-/il-)lative.

--
Ray
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fieri per pauciora.
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