A Functional Approach To Locative Prepositional Phrases

This dissertation adopts a functional approach to locative prepositional phrases. In fact, a locative prepositional phrase is the general name of spatiotemporal prepositional phrases. In addition, a locative prepositional phrase is mainly composed of a locative preposition and a nominal group. In daily verbal communication, we can see that locative prepositional phrases are used in a large amount in the expression of spatiotemporal meanings. From an experiential perspective, a locative prepositional phrase is typically used to construe the experience of location in space and time. So, I argue that a locative prepositional phrase is an important lexicogrammatical resource in the representation of spatiotemporal experience.The linguistic representation of location in space and time usually exists in four semantic categories: locative concepts, actions, manners and environments. These locative categories belong to the semantic construal of locating experience. Among them, the locative environment typically characterizes spatiotemporal representation. Moreover, the locative environment is mainly realized by a locative prepositional phrase. The research purpose of this dissertation is to explore how spatiotemporal experience is grammaticalized as a locative prepositional phrase in its linguistic construal. Thus, the investigation of locative prepositional phrases mainly touches upon the experiential function of location in space and time.From a generic perspective, different text types can adopt different locative prepositional phrases in the realization of spatiotemporal location. I argue that locative prepositional phrases are taken as a lexicogrammatical pattern to recognize genre types. Meanwhile, we can use the generic pattern of locative prepositional phrases to make clear how a text develops within a spatiotemporal framework of genre types. The spatiotemporal profiling of locative prepositional phrases exists in their generation, recognition and development of description and recount genres. In the generic generation, locative prepositional phrases are used for the spatiotemporalconstruction in the semantic and lexicogrammatical processing. In the generic recognition, locative prepositional phrases are used for the spatiotemporal construction in the topical and structural presentation. In the generic development, locative prepositional phrases are used for the textual organization in the spatial and temporal progression.From a semantic perspective, a locative prepositional phrase works to express spatiotemporal meanings in the semantic representation of locating experience. In the circumstantial transitivity, I propose that a locative prepositional phrase can construe spatiotemporal location in the representation of the spatial transdomain, measurement, dimension and temporality. In the representation of the spatial transdomain, locative prepositional phrases realize spatiotemporal meanings in two semantic domains: the concrete and abstract meanings. In the representation of the spatial measurement, a locative prepositional phrase works to mark the spatial boundary. The spatial meaning which can be measured by a locative prepositional phrase is called the measurable spatial meaning whereas the spatial meaning which can not be measured by a locative prepositional phrase is called the measureless spatial meaning. In the representation of the spatial dimension, a locative prepositional phrase can express spatial meanings of the horizontal, the vertical and their intersectional dimensions. Furthermore, it can also express spatial meanings of simple and compound dimensions. In the representation of the spatiotemporal mapping, a locative prepositional phrase works to construct the temporality from two perspectives. On the one hand, a spatial prepositional phrase expresses the temporal meaning on the basis of the linear spatial similarity. On the other hand, a spatial prepositional phrase characterizes the spatiotemporal parallelism in which the temporal meaning can be loaded within it.From a lexicogrammatical perspective, a locative prepositional phrase can be an important lexicogrammatical resource in the linguistic representation of location in space and time. I argue that the grammaticalization of the spatiotemporal notions can be presented in the stratificational realization of a locative prepositional phrase. At the phrase stratum, a locative prepositional phrase functions as a qualifier to anominal group and an adjunct to a verbal group. At the clause stratum, a locative prepositional phrase functions to foreground the temporal location as a marked theme while it functions to background the spatial location. This lexicogrammatical pattern can be typically realized in the material and existential processes. At the clause complex stratum, a locative prepositional phrase functions to expand a clause complex by multiplying an enhancing circumstance whereas it functions to condense a clause complex by downranking a dependent clause into a phrase. Besides, we can see that a Chinese prepositional framing is partly equal to a locative prepositional phrase through a comparative analysis between English and Chinese. Therefore, its syntactic position is not as flexible as that of a locative prepositional phrase.The exploration of locative prepositional phrases helps find spatiotemporal principles in linguistic systems. Moreover, the investigation of locative prepositional phrases helps find the spatiotemporal principles in locating experience. As language learning is concerned, the study of locative prepositional phrases helps raise the efficiency of reading comprehension.