EXPRESSION OF DIMENSIONALITY AND DIRECTIONALITY IN FRENCH AND IN SERBIAN

Abstract

The paper presents the analysis how the features of dimensionality and directionality are expressed in French and in Serbian. In the theory of conceptual semantics (Jackendoff 1991) dimensionality conveys the geometrical properties of the ground and it is defined as a four value category – a point (0DIM), a line (1DIM), a surface (2DIM) and a volume (3DIM). The feature of directionality refers to dynamic aspects of spatial relations: the directed one-dimensional line becomes the Path. Although on the syntactic level French and Serbian use different means to express spatial realations, French using prepositions, while Serbian possesses a rich spatial preposition+case system, both languages express the relation of the object to the surface (2DIM) and to the volume (3DIM) in a similar way. French uses the preposition sur to express the location of the object on the surface and dans in the volume. In Serbian too, the prepositions na (o, po)+N_Loc/N_Acc indicate the position of an object on the surface and u+N_Loc/N_Acc in the volume. On the other hand, there are considerable differencies between these two languages in the expression of puntcual and one-dimensional relations. In French the preposition à denote the punctual conceptualization conveying that the object is refered to as a goal and a landmark in the process of movement. In that way the french preposition à implicitely denotes the Path. Serbian, however, on the formal level indicates the Path and the goal reached in mouvement by the accusative. In that way, French and Serbian express differently the dynamic aspects of spatial relations, French using the punctual conceptualization of the ground, while Serbian indicates the goal by one-dimensional Path expressed by the accusative.