Rumsuppfattningen i svenskan och polskan. En jämförande studie i prepositionsbruk

Abstract

The comparison of spatial prepositions in Polish and Swedish is based on the assumption that spatial exponents of different languages represent a common conceptual system, a kind of elementary geometry. The common universe consists of DISTANCE, DIMENSIONS, INTERIOR, EXTERIOR and concepts related to the vertical and to the horisontal axis. The languagespecific distinctions show that each language discovers or stresses somewhat different features of the world referred to. Thus, on the one hand, the repertoire of spatial exponents tends to differ from language to language. On the other hand, there are differences in the semantic structure. Some Swedish prepositions need nouns denoting ringformed, cassetteshaped or bending objects, while Polish prepositions specify objects as full or empty, being in dynamic contact, or surrounded by other objects like islands. Swedish stresses the one- and three-dimensionality of objects more consistently than Polish. External surface of objects and the close adjacency are also differently structured in the languages in question. Some difference in spatial metonymy and metaphors are also pointed out.