Rainsford, Thomas2024-11-292024-11-292019978-90-272-0337-3http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:93-opus-ds-153711http://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/handle/11682/15371http://dx.doi.org/10.18419/opus-15352We examine a series of medieval French spatial Ps with de- prefixes (de-forms; e.g. dessus, dedans), showing that they display a combination of preposition-, adverb- and noun-like syntactic properties which distinguish them from their corresponding base forms (e.g. sus, ens). We argue that these properties can best be accounted for by considering de-forms to be modifiers of a null PLACE noun. Finally, we suggest that during the medieval period, de-forms are reanalysed as nouns, which causes wide-ranging changes in their distribution, including the development of complex prepositions such as au-dessus de.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess440conferenceObject