Abstract

In this paper the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG) developed by Langacker is adopted to attain a cognitive semantic analysis of the use of the Arabic prepositions (fii) in the horizontal and vertical axes, as used in the Taizzi dialect. Although, encoding the sense of CONTAINMENT, the preposition (fii) is assumed not to play any role in the horizontal and vertical axes; the use of the preposition (fii) in the TD proves things differently. The problem with (fii) is that it is very tempting to be used in the locative sense in which one physical entity is CONTAINED WITHIN another physical entity. However, the cognitive analysis of (fii) justifies the use of this preposition in many instances of the Taizzi dialect where this preposition is seemingly exploited to encode non-containment-related spatial relations. This unfolds some of the unsolved issues concerning prepositions in general and the Arabic prepositions in particular taking the use of (fii) in the Taizzi dialect as a sample. The data presented in this paper show that speakers of the Taizzi dialect extend the use of (fii) to depict spatial relations other than the ones where the Trajector (TR) is actually contained within the boundaries of the Landmark (LM). The instances analyzed in this paper show that (fii) encodes spatial relations in which the TR and the LM are horizontally or vertically related to each other. However, the use of the preposition (fii) by speakers of the Taizzi dialect to encode these spatial relations proves they cognitively characterized the LMs as containers that contain the TRs.

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