In 'Ithaca', like Chaplin and the thief, Bloom and Stephen imitate each other's actions in a seemingly mechanical manner: 'first sequent, then simultaneous', 'their sides contiguous, their organs of micturition reciprocally rendered invisible by manual
circumposition' (U 17.1186-7).
Finally, consider the
circumposition an x vorbei 'past x' in (26a).
144) is a source-oriented principle and has three aspects: its effects are reflected in a form's morphophonological shape (formal erosion) and its meaning (semantic bleaching), as well as its syntactic environment (position in the syntagm: original postposition or circumposition vs.
While no case of original pre-position changing to innovative post- or circumposition is attested, the change from original dative government to innovative, but less typical genitive government does occur.
Closer inspection reveals that Zazaki uses a variety of structural means for expressing relationships covered in English by prepositions, but Selcan is committed to a purely linear classification based on a three-way distinction between preposition, postposition, and
circumposition. He fails to make the crucial distinction between genuine basic prepositions and strongly grammaticalized Izafe constructions.
Prepositions, postpositions,
circumpositions, and particles.
Circumpositions consist of a phrase-initial prefix and a modifying postpositional element at the end of the phrase.