“Prepositions in Cause expressions”.

Several prepositions can denote Cause in Latin. They all have a basic spatial meaning from which the causal meaning is derived through different metaphors. Their usage and distribution varies among authors and through time. Related semantic roles, such as Beneficiary and Purpose, can be expressed to varying extents by the same prepositions that express Cause. In Late Latin Cause and Beneficiary (and later Purpose) merged completely, a development which is still partly visible in the Romance languages. It is argued that merger of these semantic roles is favored by the fact that the prepositions involved expressed some sort of static Location as their original local meaning, and did not denote directionality.