Adpositions (Pre- & Postpositions)

Adpositions (Pre- & Postpositions)

• - a limited number of prepositions - re-apply of the old ones, instead of inventing new ones.

• Tok Pisin: mi go long taun – I go to town mi kam long town – I come from town mi stap long haus – I stayed at home mi paitim dok long stik – I hit the dog with a stick

• Nouns – durable: dog, sky Verbs – rapid change: swim, go, hit properties – hot day, green house properties are less time-stable than nouns, but more time-stable than most verbs

1st possibility

• Subdivision into stative and non- stative verbs non-stative: kill, shoot stative: be-green, be-ill (Mandarin Chinese, Yoruba)

2nd possibility

• adjectives as an extra category border-line between nouns/adj. and verbs/adj. seems arbitrary e.g. a gold watch  noun a lasting peace  verb

• In the early days verbs and adjectives were probably indistinguishable. To reach a clear distinction later word- endings were added.

• But a language is still not complete with just a few parts of speech, and various attachements for its verbs.

• So from this point on it´s still a long way to today´s language