The Categorial Status of Body Part Prepositions in Valley Zapotec ...

Constructions using directional verbs show that BP prepositions function the same
in the syntax as non-BP prepositions do. The directional verbs in (17-19) select for PP
complements, which can be satisfied by either BP or non-BP PPs, but not, importantly,
by NPs.
2.9 Semantic Change and Syntactic Reanalysis
The meanings of the BP terms as both nouns and prepositions can be accounted
for through a path of meaning extension through metaphor and syntactic reanalysis.
These terms, though once purely lexical morphemes, referring to concrete objects, have
developed into functional morphemes.
Adapting arguments from Hollenbach (1995), I categorize the meanings of the
body part terms into three types: basic meaning, meanings derived from metaphorical
extension, and meanings derived through "projecting space" extension; these are
described below. Hollenbach (1995) uses these types of meaning change to account for
all of the nominal and prepositional meanings of the body part terms in Mixtecan, another
Otomanguean language family of Oaxaca. The types of changes she describes for Mixtec
seem to be able to account for most of the locational meanings in VZ.
2.9.1 Basic Meaning
The “basic meaning” of all the body part terms seems to be the human body part.
This seems most basic for two reasons: all the other meanings seem explainable with the
body part as the original source of the noun and speakers define these terms (when
presented in isolation) as body parts. (However, it may be easier to define a noun out of
context than it is to define a preposition, so perhaps the task of defining a word in
27