ADP: adposition
Definition
Adpositions are functional words used with nominals forming a single structure and allowing them to enter into various syntactic relations within the clause, mostly obl or nmod. The relation of the adposition to the nominal is always case.
Pashto has various types of adpositions. There are a few proper adpositions (mostly prepositions), which can further build circumpositions with improper postpositions.
Pashto adpositions require the nominal to be in a certain morphonological case.
The Case feature is then tagged also for the adposition itself.
An adposition can be used with different case when used alone (for proper prepositions) in various circumposing structures.
Cases associated with Pashto adpositions are local (Loc), oblique (Acc) and ablative (Abl).
Proper adpositions
| Local (Loc) | Oblique (Acc) | Ablative (Abl) |
| پۀ pë “at, in, by, on...” پر për “on” |
د dë “of” ته ta “to, for” |
له la “from” تر tër “up to” بې be “without” |
NOTES:
- The adposition ته ta is the only postposition, all other proper adpositions are prepositions.
- The postposition ته ta can be used in multi-word tokens with directional pronouns را râ “I, we”, در dar “you” and ور war “he, she, it, they”: راته rấta, درته dárta and ورته wárta.
- The prepositions پر për and تر tër used with the 3rd person weak pronoun یې ye “he, she, it, they” are merged into a multi-word tokens پرې pre and ترې tre.
- The combination of prepositions بې له be la “without” is also used.
Circumpositions
Pashto circumposing structures consist of the first (prepositional) and the second (postpositional) part:
Prepositional part
- proper prepositions پۀ pë, د dë, له la and تر tër
-
پۀ pë is used with the local (Loc) case
-
د dë, له la and تر tër are used with the oblique (Acc) case
- although له la and تر tër themselves are used with the ablative
Postpositional part
- improper postpositions
- some can be used also separately as adverbs (where they probably originate from)
- some can be used with more proper prepositions
Frequent circumpositions
- “in”: پۀ … کې pë … ke
- “on”: پۀ … باندې pë … bấnde
- “up to”: پۀ … پورې pë … póre = تر … پورې tër … póre
- “under”: تر … لاندې tër … lấnde
- “after”: تر … ورویته tër … wrústa
- “before”: تر … مخکې tër … më́xke
- “from”: له … څخه la … cë́xa
- “with”: له … سره la … sará = د … سره dë … sará
- “for”: د … لپاره dë … lapấra
- “besides”: د … ترڅنګ dë … tërcáng
- “among”: د … ترمنځ dë … tërmánż
NOTE:
- Similarly to ته ta, some of the improper pospositions can be used alone in multi-word tokens with directional pronouns را râ “I, we”, در dar “you” and ور war “he, she, it, they”: درسره darsará “with you”, ورباندې warbấnde “on it”…
Examples
-ㅤپۀ کور کې pë kor ke “in the house” / “at home”
ADP in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [es] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [gn] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [no] [oge] [pcm] [ps] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [xmf] [yue] [zh]