Prepositional phrases of a Path in Russian

The main focus of the study is on the semantic extensions of Russian prepositional phrases allied with the image schema of a Path, such as po+DAT, pro+ACC (obsolete), čerez +ACC, skvoz'+ACC, o+PR (obsolete) and po+PR (obsolete), as well as za+ACC and pod+ACC that may profile a Path implicitly. Since some meanings of prepositional phrases can only be explained by diachronic analysis, prepositional phrases that do not have a spatial meaning in present day Russian, are also included in the study. Using the cognitive linguistic approach, the article demonstrates patterns of semantic extensions from spatial to non-spatial meanings through metaphoric transfer. It is shown how the prepositional phrases associated with the same aspect of a spatial image schema commonly develop the same non-spatial semantic extensions.