GRAMMATICALIZATION AND SECONDARY PREPOSITIONS DERIVED FROM VERBS AND NOUNS

Sažetak: Unlike the traditional conception of prepositions as closed word class with a limited number of members, prepositions in this paper are conceived as an open, inhomogeneous group of words (including both lexemes and syntagms) consisting of elements with a different degree of grammaticalization. The term secondary prepositions covers those expressions wich originate from other word classes, but which are used in contemporary Croatian in the same form both as lexical and grammatical units. Consequently, such prepositions are divided into deverbal (zahvaljujući, isključivši, sudeći po) and denominal (početkom, na temelju, u vezi s). In accordance with the assumptions of grammaticalization theory, the author emphasizes the difference between lexical and grammatical uses of such expressions and shows that these prepositions have lost some of their former categorial features, which is primarily caused by semantic changes, that is by the bleaching of their lexical meanings.