circumposition

Circumposition is a type of adpositional construction in which a pair of elements, one preceding and one following the complement, together express a single prepositional relation. The core of the construction is the complement, typically a noun phrase or a clause that the relation applies to.

The circumpositional elements can be independent words, clitics, or affixes and may be preposed and postposed around the complement. The combined unit behaves like a single preposition or postposition in terms of semantic scope, governing the noun phrase or clause it surrounds.

Example pattern: the sequence P1 NP P2, where P1 is a preposed adpositional element before the complement NP, and P2 is a postposed adpositional element after NP; together they encode a relationship such as location, direction, time, or other semantic relations.

Functions: Circumpositions can express spatial relations (location or direction), temporal relations (time), and other relational meanings such as manner, purpose, or causation. The exact interpretation depends on the language and the surrounding syntactic structure.

Typology and distribution: Circumpositions are relatively rare cross-linguistically but have been described in several language families. They show variation in how the two parts attach and how the complement is structured. In some languages the circumpositional parts are fixed affixes; in others they appear as discrete words or clitics.

See also: adposition, preposition, postposition, circumfix, case marking.