Partition et localisation spatiale : les noms de localisation interne

Abstract

The « topological part / object » relation is one of the five or six large part / whole relations expressed in language. In French, it is expressed through a number of nouns called « Noms de localisation interne » . These NLI have many syntactic and semantic properties in common with nouns referring to object components, Ncomp, involved in another kind of part-whole relation, but a closer study shows that the NLI / Nobject relation is to be analysed both as a partition and a localisation relation. As a partitive relation, it is quite comparable to a Ncomp / Nobject relation, at the same time, it is to be considered as a spatial relation. An explanation can be found for this mixed status if we accept the hypothesis of an evolutionary path leading from Npc (body-part nouns) to Ncomp, then on to NLI and from there eventually to spatial relational markers (prepositions and adverbs). The transition from one stage to the other is marked by an increasing effect of grammaticalization and abstraction.