A cognitive linguistic view of South Slavic prepositions and prefixes

Abstract: Cognitive linguists dealing with the Slavic languages in Slavic countries and worldwide have been engaged in broad research activities. However, much of this research has remained over-looked, especially works published in Slavic languages in Slavic countries. Individual Slavic languages are unevenly represented in cognitive linguistic research in an international context; among other things, this is related to how widely individual Slavic languages are taught and studied abroad. The seven articles in this special issue on South Slavic prepositions and pre-fixes draw attention to the cognitive linguistic approach to South Slavic languages, a language group that is underrepresented in research on Slavic in English-language publications. This issue does not aim to provide a broad overview of representative topics that cognitive lin-guists dealing with South Slavic explore, although this would be a valuable endeavor. Instead, it focuses on depth and detail: on space in South Slavic, specifically, on prepositions and pre-fixes, and the constructions they occur in. The articles share a common theoretical framework, although their approaches slightly differ, a consequence of which is that the articles enter into an interesting dialogue with each other. We view this as a positive fact.