The analysis shows that while behind and beneath are still frequently used as adverbs in the whole Middle English period, between and betwixt are predominantly used as prepositions already in Early Middle English. This clearly demonstrates that the degree of grammaticalisation of the latter two Middle English words was much higher than that of behind and beneath.
The present article investigates, from the perspective of the Cognitive Linguistics, the trajector (TR)/landmark (LM) configurations in the spatial meanings of the preposition an on the conceptual level and compares them with their Polish counterparts. The selected samples from the DWDS corpus and their translational equivalents form the subject are the subject of the investigation. The established TR/LM relations are checked for similarities and differences. The main focus is on the concept of the surface as the LM in its vertical and horizontal alignment as well as the determination of the case. The cognitive-linguistic studies of the semantics of prepositions mainly concern the English language. Thus the original value of the present analysis is its contrasting German-Polish orientation. The aim of the analysis is to determine the TR/LM relations, differences in the conceptualization of the scene depending on which objects form the LM and which are highlighted as TR. The question of how the conceptualization of the LM and/or the TR of the preposition influences the conceptualization of the scene and the meaning of the preposition is investigated. The analysis is based on findings of Cognitive Grammar to understand the meaning as conceptualization (Langacker 2008) and on the schematic conceptualization of the TR/LM relation as a spatial relation of two points (Herskovits 1986). The TR is seen as the point in focus and the LM as its spatial reference point (Langacker 2008). As a result of the analysis, the schemas of locomotion, transfer and localization with different TR/LM configurations were selected. The comparison of the analyzed utterances with their Polish counterparts revealed differences in the conceptualization of the scene, which were manifested in the choice of prepositions. It further turned out that the German preposition an and its Polish counterparts differ in terms of relevance/irrelevance of the movement, non-movement and direction for determining or choosing a case as well as in terms of the conceptualization of the surface as the LM with regard to its vertical and horizontal orientation.
The present paper traces the history of four selected adverbs with the prefix be- in Middle English. Already in Old English behind, beneath, between and betwixt are attested to function as both adverbs and prepositions, which demonstrates that the process of grammaticalisation accounting for the development of prepositions from adverbs started before that period. The focus of the study are the diachronic changes of the degree of grammaticalisation of the examined lexemes in the Middle English period as demonstrated by the ratio of their use with a respective function in the most natural context. Hence, specially selected Middle English prose texts are analysed. The analysis shows that while behind and beneath are still frequently used as adverbs in the whole Middle English period, between and betwixt are predominantly used as prepositions already in Early Middle English. This clearly demonstrates that the degree of grammaticalisation of the latter two Middle English words was much higher than that of behind and beneath.
The aim of the article is to determine the peculiarities of meaning of Russian prepositions. The relativity of syntactic words is analyzed on the bases of spatial prepositions. The article distinguishes three kinds of relativity: linguistic relativity, mental relativity, and real relativity.
The very state of contemporary linguistics presupposes not only the appearance of new aspects and objects of research, but also a return to certain previously described linguistic categories. Preposition is undoubtedly one of these categories. The necessity to re-examine preposition and its functional equivalents in accordance with new theoretical and practical methodologies and requirements gave rise to the international research project Slavonic Prepositions in Synchrony and Diachrony: Morphology and Syntax. Linguists from Russia Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia and Poland currently participate in the project. This article presents the assumptions and goals of the said project as well as certain problems concerned with the very description of Slavonic prepositions, particularly from contrastive perspective.
New prepositional analytic constructions in contemporary PolishThis paper presents pairs of structures in which one structure is a correct synthetic phrase and the other is a corresponding analytic structure that is incorrect according to contemporary dictionaries. The latter are nevertheless used because speakers notice subtle differences between the synthetic and analytic forms. As a result, one structure cannot be replaced with the other in all contexts. The process of replacing synthetic structures with analytic ones is evidence of the intensifying tendency towards analyzation in Polish. This process has been observed in all periods of the history of the Polish language. Nowe przyimkowe konstrukcje analityczne we współczesnej polszczyźnieTematem artykułu są pary konstrukcji, z których pierwsza jest syntetyczna, druga – analityczna. Wszystkie opisywane formy analityczne są niezgodne z normą, a mimo to wielu użytkowników wybiera je zamiast połączeń syntetycznych. Funkcjonowanie w języku dwóch niemal identycznych struktur syntetycznej i analitycznej może być spowodowane subtelną różnicą znaczeniową między nimi. Proces ten jest dowodem działania tendencji analitycznej w polszczyźnie, obserwowanej we wszystkich okresach rozwoju języka polskiego.
The article is dedicated to the local preposition na ‘on’ in Polish and its German equivalents auf. The main focus of the study are case alternations associated with the use of the preposition. The locative case in Polish is regarded as a structural case. Based on the observations on verb-independent case alternations, the preposition na ‘on’ in Polish is considered as a functional category with regard to the Principles and Parameters Theory the Minimalist Program.
In the present-day discourse of bilingualism in Transylvania, the investigation of methods and possibilities for language teaching has an important role. In Romania, it is compulsory for the members of linguistic minorities to learn and to use the language of the state, but at the same time they face a number of problems in the process of learning it. To reconsider the methods of language teaching, there is need for studies which outline the particularities of language use of Romanian of Hungarian speakers. This paper is aimed at presenting a part of this image by analysing how the Hungarian language and the cognitive features entailed influence the translation of noun cases into the Romanian language. The paper presents the 18 noun cases and the prepositions they can be translated with into Romanian.
Spatial relations are an important element of communication. They are expressed using prepositional (Jeli podél řeky. ‘They drove alongside the river.’) as well as nonprepositional phrases (Prošli hlubokým lesem. ‘They crossed a deep forest.’), locative adverbs (Všichni sešli dolů. ‘They all came downstairs.’) and subordinate clauses (Došli až tam, kde cesta končila. ‘They arrived to the place where the path ended.’). ADV Loc phrases assume secondary meaning in communication (Je úplně na dně. ‘He has hit bottom.’ — he is in a critical situation). Originally, local relations played a fundamental role in the formation of other meanings: the meanings of purpose, effect, and cause evolved in the dynamic component while the meanings of condition, aspect, manner, etc. developed in the static component. Local relations receive due attention in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages as well as in the reference level descriptions for Czech (A1–B1). The same applies to selected textbooks of Czech for foreigners. There is, however, room for improvement which could be achieved by: a) applying the onomasiological approach (grouping prepositions based on semantic units) instead of the semasiological one; the obstacle to this is the horizontal description of Czech declension (a step-by-step presentation of grammatical cases rather than entire paradigms), b) taking advantage of the knowledge of the use of primary prepositions (linguo-didactic instructions) and c) taking advantage of other aspects, e.g. the presentation of the preposition na ‘for’ as a preposition of purpose and not place (Jde na oběd. ‘He is going for lunch.’ — not “where”, but “why”); paying more attention to differences (z Brna vs. od Brna ‘from Brno’ vs. ‘from around Brno’); synonymy (podle/podél řeky ‘along/alongside the river’); and the competition between prepositions (za mlhy / v mlze = ‘during the fog / in the fog’).
The article presents a syntactic and semantic analysis of the expressions krok po kroku 'step by step; one step at a time', krok za krokiem 'step by step; little by little', and krok w krok 'step in step', which are described in the dictionaries as idioms. The analysis confirms the existence of the lexical units of Polish language krok po kroku, krok za krokiem and krok w krok but it also shows that in some contexts these expressions are the result of iterative operations.
The investigation of semantic-syntactic units of language is a current problem of modern linguistics. Many linguists in Ukraine and abroad investigate the question of the theoretical foundations and lingual specifi cs of locative semantics. The development of constructions which define the static location of an object near another one, and their semantic and structural variability are analyzed. Most attention is focused on constructions with the Ukrainian equivalents of the preposition near (коло, около, подле, подли, ведле, близко, близ(ъ), поблизу, возле, у) and nouns in the genitive case. The functioning of these noun-prepositional constructions in the written records of the local dialect of eastern Polyssia in the 17th-18th centuries and the modern dialect is considered. The local dialect of eastern Polyssia still conserves archaic constructions.
The study focuses on the schematization of natural categories of the meaning in the preposition over, and contrasting it with the schematization of relevant spatial relations in Serbian and Ukrainian. Contrasting similar verbalizations of spatial relations in Ukrainian and Serbian has enabled us to conclude that distinct senses of over correlate with image-schemas characteristic for various Ukrainian prepositions – mainly над and через, but also partially за and на, and Serbian prepositions preko and nad. We deduce that in Ukrainian and Serbian the presented set of scenes are not conceptualized as a chain of connected variations derived from the same proto-scene and possessing one or two changes in the scene that provoke a distinct sense, but rather as different scenes that represent various categories of spatial relations, and they are not connected via derivation.
The author presents an argument in favour of Durkheimian – Saussurian theory of „social fact” as applied to language. The argument consists in pointing out two examples of morphological facts of Polish that are not easily accessible to native speakers and have not been explicitly verbalized, but are nonetheless invariably and rigorously implemented by all of them in their linguistic practice. This shows that the regularities are superimposed on them in a strongly anti-individualistic way. The first fact can be illustrated with the sequence walka ze zorganizowaną przestępczością ‘struggle of its being followed by the adjacent segment beginning in z + V (rather than by a cluster of consonants beginning in a frontal fricative). Polish has created an analogon of the necessary separation of the prepositions z and w from their right-hand syllabic homophonic partner in the adjacent context. The nature of the analogon can be described in the following way: we have to do with strict functional proportional separability of the right-hand non-syllabic homophonic partner of the preposition, on the one hand, and the rest of the expression the partner belongs to. Here is an example of such a proportion: zorganizowany : organizowany :: zoperowany : operowany. The second fact can be illustrated with the present tense form dozbierywuje (vs. * dozbieruje) of the verb dozbierywać. This shape manifests a strict parallelism with regard to the imperfective forms in -liwać, -liwuje, vs. * -luje, cf. rozstrzelać – rozstrzeliwać – rozstrzeliwuje. Both main spirants, [l] and [r], go here hand in hand. However, there is an additional regularity in play. The point is that the shape -r-ywuje depends on the presence of the preceding sequence which contains a root vowel, cf. przeorać – przeorywać – przeorywuje (here, the vowel is [o]). If this condition is not met, the final -uje does not appear; instead, next to -r-yw- regular endings of the main conjugation of verbs in -ać are used; thus, we have -a in the 3rd person sg, -am in the 1st person sg, and so on, cf.: przegrać – przegrywać – przegrywa – przegrywam.
The author of the paper aims at providing a description of the syntax of the prepositions znad, spod, sprzed, zza; sponad, spopod, spoza, spomiędzy, spośród with respect to their structure and meaning. The method of analysis is based on the Minimalist Program. The content of the paper focuses on issues relating to reconstruction of the form of the phrases with these prepositions and reconstruction of the hierarchy of the components in the syntactic structures.
The author argues that prepositions are an integral part of nominal phrases, and their graphic treatment as autonomous words is purely a lexicographic convention. They have maintained their primary meaning which is localization of material objects and events in space and time, and they subsequently evolved to also express localization in the social world and in the mental world. In a grammatical description of a language they should be discussed together with the semantic and formal structure of nominal phrases.
Structures with prepositional expressions constitute a large collection of Old Polish constructions that underwent multiple linguistic processes. As the starting point of my considerations, I assume that prepositions are not functional syntactic units. A syntactic unit, i.e. an element, is a prepositional expression, i.e. a preposition together with the nomen in the appropriate case. Prepositional expressions are an analytical form that is functionally equivalent to an inflectional case, a synthetic form. Structures with cases are considerably lexicalized in Old Polish, and the processes in which they participate are not innovative – while processes in which prepositional expressions take part radically reorganize the area of relations based on categorical spacial meanings. It is mainly the preposition itself that carries the meaning, while other ingredients of the context, especially the nomen linked by the preposition, must harmonize with it. All the other categorical spacial meanings, of which there is more than fifty, are created with the participation of a broader context. Taking this into account, I consider a majority of categorical non-spacial meanings to be transformations of spacial meanings. They can be more or less distinct; the less distinct they are, the greater the probability of a rise of government, i.e. of a formal schema “announced” by the verb.
The old Dutch mits (‘if and only if’) seems to experience a revival in usage: conjunction, preposition, autonomous, elliptical. In this article we analyse two participle constructions, one old Bible verse translated into Dutch in the 16th century, one over 200 year old French sentence about sparagrass, translated in a Flemish newspaper in 2016. Mits seems to come in handy to steer the meaning of participle constructions, which aren’t that common (anymore) in contemporary Dutch. Here, too, the ‘semantic regularity’ in ‘mits’-constructions Daalder wrote about, is kept intact.
Some remarks on the formalization of the propositional argument pCaus in sentences with prepositional causative predicative expressions in Bulgarian The paper focuses on the means of expressing propositional arguments in sentences with prepositional causative predicative expressions. Special attention is devoted to the causal argument (pCaus) and the processes of syntactic condensation and decondensation. Kilka uwag o formalizacji argumentu propozycjonalnego pCaus w zdaniach z przyimkowymi kauzatywnymi wyrażeniami predykatywnymi w języku bułgarskim W artykule skoncentrowano się na środkach wyrażania argumentów propozycjonalnych w zdaniach z przyimkowymi kauzatywnymi wyrażeniami predykatywnymi. Więcej miejsca poświęcono argumentowi przyczynowemu (pCaus) oraz procesom kondensacji i dekondensacji składniowej.
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