(Path Prepositions in French and Romanian. A Synchronic and Diachronic Study)
The present dissertation is a study of path prepositions in French and Romanian: Fr. de, depuis, par, jusqu'à..., Rom. de, pe, pânæ... These prepositions make up a distinct class of state prepositions defined by their ability to transform the contexts in which they appear (movement, perception, etc.) into a path. This is the case even in these two verb-framed Romance languages.
Moreover, path prepositions do not configure the landmark they introduce, as is shown by the fact - optional in French, grammatical in Romanian - that they can determine prepositional phrases and topological adverbs: Fr. de sous, par où..., Rom. de la, pânæ unde... It is also noteworthy that the category of path prepositions is a recent innovation in these two languages. The previous marking of path was made by verbal satellites in Latin, and by prepositional compounds in Low Latin, Old French and Old Romanian.
The existence of path prepositions is thus a peculiarity of Romance languages, which nevertheless brings them closer to the satellite-framed languages (e.g. the Germanic ones).
|
E-mail this message to a friend
