Semantics of Postpositions with the Meaning ‘Between, Among’ in Mongolic Languages

Abstract

Introduction. This article is devoted to the semantics of postpositions with the meaning ‘between’ and ‘among’ in the Mongolian languages. Currently, the scholars are increasingly paying attention to studies of the spatial characteristics of various languages, andpostpositions are one of the means of expressing spatial relations. The meaning of ’space between the elements of a set or set serving as a reference point’ is conveyed by the localization INTER. The present study aims to describe postpositions with the meaning ‘between’ and‘among’ in the Mongolian languages. The research material was the data borrowed from various Mongolian dictionaries, literary and journalistic texts available in the Kalmyk National Corpus and the Kalmyk Electronic Library. Results. The meaning ‘between’ and‘among’ is often conveyed with the help of such postpositions as hoorond / hoorondo / hooronda / hoornd, dund / dunda / dunda / dund, zabharta / zaagta / zaagt, dunduur / dunduur / dundahuur / dundahur, dundaas / dundahaa / dundaasa / dundas, etc. Depending on the context, they may have their own peculiarities of use. The localization indicates ‘being between landmarks’, ‘moving into the space between landmarks’, and ‘moving out of the space between landmarks’. The meaning ‘being in the space between or among landmarks’ is related to the shape, uniformity of objects, as well as the distance between landmarks, while‘movement into space’ is characterized by directionality and non-directionality of action. Conclusion. The analysis of the postpositions in questionshows a variety of their meanings in various speech contexts, as well as peculiarities of their use in related Mongolian languages.

Keywords

• spatial relations
• postpositions
• mongolian languages
• meanings of ‘between’ and ‘among’