| How are German NP1 + auf/an + NP2 constructions expressed in English, Polish, and Ukrainian, and to what extent do these languages employ spatial prepositions to convey similar functions and meanings? What are the cross-linguistic similarities and differences in form and meaning of these constructions? |
(1) Most constructions across languages do not employ the same prepositions in terms of their spatial meaning, which challenges the assumption of uniform metaphorical and/or metonymic extensions. This indicates that when expressing similar scenes or relations between entities, different languages focus on distinct aspects of the relationship, or activate different "active zones" (Langacker 1991).
(2) There are some cross-linguistic correspondences when auf and an are used spatially, as auf/an are often translated as "on" in the other 3 languages. However, in abstract meanings, the semantic network diverges significantly: auf sometimes retains a connection to spatial "on", while an does not.
(3) Another parallelism: (a) an often corresponds to "of" in English and to the absence of a preposition but the object in genitive case in Polish and Ukrainian in NP1 + an + NP2 constructions. (b) Synonyms in English, Polish, and Ukrainian tend to govern the same prepositions, whereas this pattern is much less consistent in German. |