Spanish prepositions introducing adverbial constructions*

This study investigates the development of prepositions used in the expression of circumstances as adverbial adjuncts in the speech of three Spanish-speaking middle-class children. The study begins with the first appearance of one of these prepositions and the children are followed until age 4. In spite of the differences among the children concerning other aspects of their language development, what predominates in the present case is similarity. Both the forms and the meanings expressed turned up in much the same sequence in the speech of the three children. Yet when both form and meaning were seen together the results showed great variability; that is, each child began expressing a given circumstance by means of a different preposition. On the other hand, the circumstance most commonly expressed by means of new prepositions was place. The amount of polysemy increased with age, usually starting with a single meaning for each preposition. Expressions were found which seemed to represent intermediate stages between an early general category (co-occurrence) and the more specific semantic categories of space, instrument and company.