Another Look at Modification in Spatial Prepositions

The goal of this paper is to propose a unification of two strands of research within the semantics of spatial prepositions. The first strand focuses on the so-called modification problem, which can be stated as follows. Some, but not all spatial prepositions can be modified by measure phrases, such as ten meters (e.g. ten meters in front of the car). The second strand focuses on so-called prepositional aspect, in particular the fact that some but not all spatial prepositions can occur with the temporal adverbial phrase in one hour (e.g. to). A simple unified syntactic and semantic approach of aspect properties is offered, to account the data. This unified account is shown to explain and predict why telic/non-cumulative prepositions cannot combine with measure phrases (viz. *ten meters to the park). It is discussed whether prepositions that can combine with measure phrases, such as ten meters in front of the car and ten meters towards the car, have different lexical aspect properties, such as cumulativity and/or monotonicity. The answer is offered via a standard analysis of the distribution of these complex phrases with the temporal adverbs in one hour/for one hour. The consequences of the unified analysis are discussed in detail