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Characterisation and classification of the PP
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Adposition characteristically denotes a relation between two referents. According to (Fagard and Mardale 2012:304), an adposition:

  • is used as the head of an adpositional phrase;
  • typically takes a noun phrase as its complement;
  • syntactically relates its complement to a unit higher up in the clause hierarchy;
  • semantically qualifies this relation;
  • formally consists of a simple morpheme, and is short (no more than two syllables); and
  • has a high frequency.

Adpositions are distinguished from each other on the basis of the placement or presence of their complements. A preposition is placed before its complement, a postpositions is placed after its complement, and a circumposition is placed before and after (or around) its complement. An intransitive adpositiondoes not take a complement. In this section, an overview is presented of the basic characteristics of the different kinds of adpositions and adposition phrases in Afrikaans.

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For more information on the characteristics of adpositions and adposition phrases (PPs), follow the links below:

References
  • Fagard, Benjanmin & Mardale, Alexandru2012The pace of grammaticalization and the evolution of prepositional systems: Data from RomanceFolia Linguistica46303-340
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