A prepositional system of the Middle Dnieper dialects

Abstract

This article examines the prepositional system of the Middle Dnieper dialects of Ukrainian based on dialectal data, which singles out the core and periphery of Middle Dnieper. The integrated study of prepositions in functional-grammatical and areal aspects largely attests to the similar repertoire of language units within the core of the system of functional words, which shows its antiquity and integrity. The differences between central and peripheral dialects lie in the different functions of the original prepositions. The analysis of the dialectal data shows the relatively high ranking of the preposition v (u) over other prepositions used to express objective, spatial, temporal, logical (mode of action and purpose), and attributive and predicative semantic-syntactic relations. The use of synonymous case constructions with prepositions depending on the subject expression is the specific feature of Middle Dnieper. Keywords: Middle Dnieper, dialectal data, prepositional system, core and periphery, relative semantics, semantic and syntactic relation