On the Functional Structure of Locative and Directional PPs

Abstract

On the basis of a detailed empirical investigation of the syntax of locative and directional adpositional phrases in Dutch, this paper seeks to establish the structure of the lexical and extended functional projections of PLoc and PDir and its parallels with the lexical and functional structure of clauses and nominal phrases, thereby bringing the adpositional domain fully in line with the verbal and nominal domains qua structural hierarchitecture. Among other things, the paper lays out in detail the base structure and syntactic derivation of locative and directional pre-, postand circumpositional phrases, discusses the restrictions on movement inside and out of the (extended) projections of PLoc and PDir, sheds new light on the relationship between P and case, analyses the distribution of modifiers in adpositional phrases, and presents an extended case for the existence of adpositions as a lexical category.