The secret nominal life of Afrikaans intransitive adpositions

Abstract

Languages like Afrikaans are sometimes said to feature a class of adpositions that can be described as “intransitive†(e.g. binne “insideâ€, bo “upstairsâ€, agter “in the backâ€, buite “outsideâ€, onder “downstairs†voor “in the frontâ€). It is argued that such elements in fact instantiate a “hybrid†category – the locative noun category – which is not missing a Ground external argument but is actually lexicalising the nominal structure associated with that Ground argument itself. Such locative nouns pattern with R-pronouns and home-class nouns and therefore probably share a similar internal structure with these better-studied elements of language.