The case of restricted locatives

Ora Matushansky (1)

1 SFL - Structures Formelles du Langage

This paper examines the cross-linguistic phenomenon of locative case restricted to a closed class of items (L-nouns). Starting with Latin, I suggest that the restriction is semantic in nature: L-nouns denote in the spatial domain and hence can be used as locatives without further material. I show how the independently motivated hypothesis that directional PPs consist of two layers, Path and Place, explains the directional uses of L-nouns and the cases that are assigned then, and locate the source of the locative case itself in p 0 , for which I then provide a clear semantic contribution: a type-shift from the domain of loci to the object domain. I then examine cross-linguistic restrictions on the use of locative case and show that the patterns observed can be accounted for on the same assumptions.

Mots clés: locative; PP structure; case-assignment; directional; spatial

Domaines: Linguistique

Ora Matushansky. The case of restricted locatives. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung , 2019, 23 (2), ⟨10.18148/sub/2019.v23i2.604⟩. ⟨halshs-02431372⟩