| Sumario: | This paper describes the system of adpositions in three Otomanguean languages (Mazahua, Mazatec and Amuzgo) and shows that syntactically these phrases can be non-predicative, predicative and specific. In some cases, adpositional phrases do not contribute substantially to the meaning of the clause and, in others, they do so at the level of the predicate and its arguments, or they only have scope over the predicate. The analysis considers both the internal and external syntax of the adpositional phrases. The internal syntax states that adpositions can be realized in these languages as affixes, clitics or free morphemes; some of these function as predicative nuclei, therefore, they contribute in two ways to the meaning of the clause: with the meaning expressed by the nuclear adposition itself and with the internal argument they require. On the other hand, the analysis of the external syntax focuses on determining whether or not the adpositional phrases are governed by the main verb.
|
|---|
