COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF DEVELOPING CAUSATIVE MEANING IN SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS

Abstract

The paper studies the semantic structure of polysemantc prepositions. In particular the author analyses how causative meaning develops in semantics of spatial and temporal prepositions. The research shows that the semantic component ‘barrier’ is present in the semantic structures of all mentioned prepositions. Moreover, in human mentality it is associated with ‘cause’, which has a negative evaluation in many contexts.