Prepositions and the Names of Countries and Islands: A Local Grammar for the Automatic Analysis of Texts

Abstract

The expression of movement in French has given rise to a large amount of linguistic research centred on the attempt to attribute a particular meaning to a given syntactical form. Thus, for example, the use of alternatives such as the prepositions à/sur is explained in terms of a semantic opposition, with à marking "the conclusion or goal of a displacement", and sur "the direction of a rapid displacement" ("le terme d'un mouvement" and "la direction d'un mouvement rapide" respectively, G. Gougenheim, 1962). This view, illustrated by a number of examples, presupposes that it is enough to learn the "meaning" of a preposition in order to acquire the necessary competence for its production in any context.