The syntactic structure of Locations, Goals, and Sources

In this paper, I argue for a decomposition of the Path head in the syn-tactic structure for directional expressions. Based on cross-linguistic data showing that different types of paths are of different complexity and, cru-cially, are subject to a morphological containment relationship, I propose a more detailed structure for directionals. I adopt the orthodox view that Goal paths are built on top of a locative Place projection. However, I suggest that Source paths are built on top of Goal paths. This is evidenced by the morphological make-up of Source-denoting elements in a variety of languages, where the Source marker mor-phologically contains the Goal marker. Further, I explore the lexicalization of the decomposed Path structure I defend and test the predictions against the empirical domain of syncretisms between the spatial roles Source, Goal, and Location. I show that the decomposed Path structure and the lexical-ization theory I adopt capture syncretism patterns that are widely attested among languages and ban those syncretism patterns that are unattested.