How Finnish Postpositions See the Axis System
How Finnish Postpositions See the Axis System
This chapter discusses the axis system lexicalized in the semantics of Finnish postpositions. There are two kinds of postposition in Finnish meaning ‘in front of’ and ‘behind’: these postpositions indicate that both the Figure and the reference object are moving or are neutral with respect to motion. It is also shown that the Finnish prepositions meaning ‘in front of’ and ‘behind’ do not only refer to horizontal spatial relations, but any one-dimensional relation. Those postpositions that mean ‘beside’ refer to two-dimensional relations. However, the postpositions that mean ‘above’ and ‘below’ can only refer to vertical relations. The dimensional system and the orientation of the axes (horizontal, vertical, side-to-side) are dependent on each other and should be described as parts of the same system, at least when it comes to the semantics of Finnish postpositions.
Keywords: Finnish language, postpositions, axis system, semantics, prepositions, motion, spatial relations, direction, axis
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
