Afrikaans circumpositions
(Mis-)matches at the syntax-interface
Circumpositions in Afrikaans present several puzzles: (i) they always encode spatial paths, but spatial paths can
also be encoded by prepositional phrases; (ii) they can be doubling or non-doubling, and (iii) they exhibit disharmonic word order
of the kind that appears to violate the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC). In this paper, I argue that circumpositions offer
support for the existence of a directional head [dir] in the fine structure of the Afrikaans verbal
domain, and that this head is lexicalised by adpositional material in circumpositional expressions. I show that
Afrikaans grammar distinguishes Route-paths from Goal-/Source-paths, and argue that whereas [dir] selects a
[pathP] in the structure underlying Goal-/Source-paths (circumpositional expressions), Route-paths (prepositional
expressions) are ‘bare’ [pathP] structures. I argue that since circumpositions identify structural components in
different Spellout Domains, double-insertion of adposition-like material is required to exhaustively lexicalise the structure, and
the disharmonic word order is understood as a direct consequence of the fact that [dir] is located in Afrikaans’
head-final verbal, which addresses the concern arising around FOFC. Finally, given that the adpositions in circumpositional
expressions are shown to occupy structural positions that are distinct from that of de-adpositional V-particles, the paper also
addresses the structural relation between circumpositions and particle verbs in which adposition-like material lexicalises a
resultative [res] node in the verbal domain.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 3.Data
- 3.1
How to distinguish a bona fide circumposition from a ‘spurious circumposition’
- 3.2
The case of met…langs (lit.: with…along; “along”)
- 4.Analysis
- 4.1Basic tenets
- 4.2Against a [
pathp path [placep place]] analysis of circumpositions
- 4.3Prepositional Path-encoding elements
- 4.4Deriving circumpositions
- 5.Postpositions vs. V-particles
- 5.1Analysing V-particles and ‘spurious circumpositions’
- 5.2Russian prefixes and Afrikaans particles
- 5.3[res] vs. [dir]
- 6.Composing Goal-/Source- and Route-paths
- 7.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References