Mapping Spatial PPs: an introduction

This introductory chapter discusses some of the main threads of the analyses proposed in the remaining chapters and one of their general implications: that phrases composed of spatial prepositions, adverbs, particles, and DPs do not instantiate different structures but merely spell out different portions of one and the same articulated configuration.

In both the generative and nongenerative literature, recent years have seen an impressive growth in the number of studies on prepositional phrases that express spatial relations. The present volume contributes to that discussion by focusing on one particular aspect of their syntax that has remained relatively neglected: the fine grained articulation of their internal structure. In this introduction I discuss some of the main threads of these analyses and one general implication that seems to me particularly significant: that phrases composed of spatial prepositions, adverbs, particles, and DPs do not instantiate different structures but merely spell out different portions of one and the same articulated configuration.