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/lp/de-gruyter/representing-prepositions-new-high-german-um-6PblezI5g1
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- Publisher
- de Gruyter
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2009 Walter de Gruyter
- ISSN
- 0024-3949
- eISSN
- 1613-396X
- DOI
- 10.1515/ling.1993.31.1.135
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
A recent dissertation on German urn (Bopst 1989) claims that prepositions have a unitary sense when viewed from an anthropocentric perspective. A unitary representation of prepositions is defensible, but neither the notion "sense" nor anthropocentricity are necessary concepts in characterizing prepositions. Using the Trajector-Landmark relation developed in cognitive grammar, it is shown that the preposition urn presupposes a Landmark with two nonidentical points that are maximally far apart. The same relation can be applied to nonlocative uses of the preposition as well as to urn as a particle on verbs. In terms of role and reference grammar urn functions as one of two operators, each distinguished by its position in the topology of the sentence and by its stress. 1. Introduction In a recent dissertation, Hans-Joachim Bopst (1989) continues the current debate on the analysis of prepositions, proposing that each has a unitary sense (gemeinsame Grundbedeutung), a claim that he exemplifies with the preposition um. The present paper intends to support this general claim but at the same time to offer a different theoretical framework, one that offers a more perspicuous approach to the linguistic description of prepositions in general. The discussion is divided into three major sections:
Journal
Linguistics - An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences – de Gruyter
Published: Jan 1, 1993