Romanian complex adnominal prepositional phrases. The example of de-phrases

Abstract

Romanian displays two types of complex PPs (i.e. PPs formed on at least two simple Ps), which may attach to Ns. The first one is headed by a combination of two (and very rarely three) lexical Ps, e. g. de la ‘from’, pe sub ‘under’, pe lângă ‘near’, de pe lângă ‘from near’ (e.g. venirea lui de la Londra ‘his coming from London’). The second type is headed by a combination of one functional P (de) and one lexical P, e. g. de la ‘from’, de pe ‘on’, de sub ‘under’, de lângă ‘near’ (e.g. cartea de pe raft ‘the book on the shelf’). In this paper, we take a closer look at these two types of prepositional constructions. First, we examine the various morpho-syntactic and semantic constraints under which the different constituents of the complex PPs may fall, e.g. the syntactic and semantic type of the matrix noun, the categorial status of the P’s complement (NP vs DP), and correlatively, the absence or presence of a determiner, their syntactic function (argument vs. modifier), their semantic interpretation (specific – non specific). Second, we pay special attention to the analysis of de occurring in the second type of complex PPs. In this respect, we show that complex PPs in type two are not genuine PPs and that de is not lexical, but the overt realisation of a functional category, namely, Mod(ifier).

Keywords

• complex prepositions
• adnominal constituents
• de-phrases
• arguments
• modifiers
• Romanian