BETWEEN INFLECTION AND DERIVATION: CELTIC PRONOMINAL PREPOSITIONS (Miedzy fleksja a slowotwórstwem: celtyckie przyimki zaimkowe (na przykladzie jezyków goidelskich)

One of the characteristic features of modern Celtic languages is the wide usage of pronominal prepositions (also known as conjugated prepositions or prepositional pronouns). These forms consist of a preposition and a suffixed pronoun, or rather a pronominal personal ending. The process of their formation, referred to as 'fusion', 'agglutination', 'incorporation', or 'merger' resembles to some extent both inflection and derivation (word formation). The paper discusses the origin and properties of selected Celtic (especially Goidelic) pronominal prepositions, and gives examples of usage (including the possessive constructions) from Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx.