The semantics of the preposition po in Croatian language

Abstract

This paper examines the semantics of the preposition po in the Croatian language within the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics. The introductory part of the paper gives a short overview of theoretical assumptions and summarises the previous fidings on the semantics of this preposition. The shortcomings of the descriptions in contemporary grammars and dictionaries are identifid and discussed. In the central part of the paper the semantic network of the preposition po is described – its prototypical spatial meaning based on the concepts of motion and surface is identifid and the ways in which the prototypical spatial meaning is related to other spatial meanings and the meanings in non-spatial domains are elaborated. All interpretations are derived from an extensive investigation into the examples collected from on-line corpuses of the Croatian language and research conducted among native speakers.