Prepositional alternation in governed prepositional objects in Spanish: A sublexical approach

Abstract

This paper examines the behavior of the preposition when using governed prepositional objects in Spanish. The first section defines the terms preposition and governed prepositional object; the second shows several arguments in favor of the lexical and eventive nature of the preposition; the third explains why Pustejovsky’s Generative Lexicon model is appropriate for prepositional analysis; the fourth studies the syntax of the prepositional objects; the fifth shows certain qualia structures corresponding to the meaning of several prepositions; finally, the sixth analyzes several prepositional alternations in terms of the agreement of the semantical-aspectual features of the preposition in relation to the features of the verb that selects it.