Nanosyntactic Analysis of Spatial Adpositions in Tati

This article investigates the spatial adpositions in Tati, analytically and descriptively, according to nanosyntax approach. Based on this approach, terminal nodes in the syntactic structure are smaller than a morpheme, i.e. one morpheme can lexicalize several terminal nodes in a syntactic tree. Tati is a postpositional language. Spatial adpositions are divided into two groups, Lexical adpositions are under the node of Axial Part Phrase and functional adpositions are in Path Phrase and Place Phrase. Based on nanosyntax approach, the syntactic structure of adpositions is [Route [ Source[ Goal[ Place[ Ax Part [KP [DP]]. In Tati, “Goal” is not phonologically expressed. So, the motion verb gives [+orientation] feature to the head of “Goal Phrase” and the morpheme which lexicalizes the head of VP, also lexicalizes the head of Goal P. The adposition for “Place”, “Source” and “Route” is -a(da). One of the principles of nanosyntax is superset principle which determines syncretism in morphemes. In Tati, the syncretism pattern is Goal≠Place=Source, which is a rare pattern among the world languages.