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Re: Set of basic adpositions

From:Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 16:41
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." > > But he gave no examples or any indication what such a small set might > consist of. Instead he goes onto examine English which "is unusually > rich in basic prepositions." > > I've tried Googling to see if any body does give anything like sets of > basic adpositions commonly found in languages. But my searches have not > come up with anything yet. Does any one know of any such list(s)? >
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', with all three cases covering all of proximity, contact and inclusion in Y, and including proximity/contact above and below Y. 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. 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. I guess there would be adposition systems equivalent to these case systems. I guess that the book 'Case' by Barry Blake can provide you with needed references. /BP

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R A Brown <ray@...>