Nordlyd: Tromsø University Working Papers on Language & Linguistics (Jan 2007)
Goal-Source Asymmetry and Russian Spatial Prefixes
Abstract
In this paper, I draw on data from Russian to argue for the asymmetry between Goal and Source prepositional phrases. Source prepositional phrases are structurally ambiguous; they can occur both as arguments and adjuncts in certain syntactic contexts. Goal prepositional phrases are unambiguously arguments. I claim that Source prepositions have lexically specified semantics, which determines their relative structural freedom; whereas Goal prepositions are derived from locative prepositions when the building of the event structure takes place and therefore they are bound to be the arguments of the verb.
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