Prepositional use with the object-of-activity function of the landmark in English and Slovene

Sažetak: The paper examines the use of spatial prepositions in English and Slovene with an OBJECT OF ACTIVITY. The term refers to the landmark in a functional relation with the trajector engaged in the normal use of the landmark (as in the man at the wheel). In English, the object-of-activity function is typically signalled by at. It is shown in the paper that at has no direct equivalent in Slovene but rather three counterparts with more specific meanings: za (‘behind’), na (‘on’) and pri (‘by’). The paper points out a relatively low occurrence of Slovene pri in comparison with English at, arguing that at has functional associations, while pri is primarily a spatial preposition. The most typical signal of the object-of-activity function in Slovene is za because it presupposes the trajector's orientation towards the inherently functional side of the landmark. It is also pointed out in the paper that although the lexical meaning of a preposition may play a role in making the preposition more or less reliable a signal of the functional relationship, the landmark’s functionality remains a pragmatic specification that can only be derived from the context.