Canonical and non-canonical patterns in the adpositional phrase of Western Uralic:

Abstract

Notions about adpositions and adpositional phrases (AdpP) reflect the ambiguous nature
 of this particular domain. While postpositions and prepositions are often dealt with
 as lexical categories, their syntactic context determines the grammatical relations of
 individual postpositions. In the diachronic development of individual adpositions, the
 phrasal unit of AdpP plays a crucial role either enhancing or diminishing the possibility
 of adopting new adpositions. In Uralic both the head and complement may be inflected,
 which increases the divergence of the adpositional system in comparison with most
 neighboring contact languages. This is illustratively seen in the bulk of adpositions in
 Finnic, Saamic and Mordvinic, which only exceptionally include borrowed lexemes.
 The focus of this article is bifold. Firstly, it briefly outlines the main structural types of
 AdpP, particularly in Western Uralic. Secondly, it discusses why loanwords only seldom
 occur in the adpositional system of languages that are strongly influenced by language
 contact and widespread bilingualism, such as contemporary Veps and Erzya.