Locative Expressions Modifying Nouns

• Published in: Hispania 1979-12, Vol.62 (4), p.679-684
• Main Author: Wonder, John P
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• ISSN: 0018-2133

In general, Spanish resists the formation of complex locative NPs from which estar 'to be' appears to have been deleted (eg, *el sofa en la sala 'the sofa in the room'), preferring instead a phrase with the full relative clause (el sofa que esta en la sala 'the sofa that is in the room') or the substitution of a phrase with de (el sofa de la sala 'the sofa of the room'), which has a slightly different sense. This prohibition includes only phrases with a locative preposition that clearly modify the N; if a phrase can be construed to modify the V or the sentence as a whole, it is acceptable. Neither does such prohibition extend to phrases that may be construed as derived from the deletion of haber 'to have, there is' or ser 'to be'. A simple syntactic explanation is suggested: a relative locative clause with estar may not be reduced. Other considerations, however, suggest that an explanation couched in semantic or perhaps "notional" terms might be more satisfactory. If the object located is preceded by a demonstrative or the locative phrase is modified in certain respects, the acceptability of the phrase in question changes. As an explanation for this variation in acceptability, the terms "static" & "active" are employed. In the first, the context of the utterance is restricted to the static location of two objects (or groups of objects); in the second, either movement or additional locations or objects are implied. Modified AA