Breaking through: How Force Dynamic Strength Varies in Finnish Adpositional Constructions with the Adposition läpi ’through

This paper is a study on the degree of force dynamics displayed by three Finnish adpositional constructions where the path adposition läpi ’through’ can be used: prepositional, postpositional and quasi-adpositional (with a locative-case marked complement). Our study of written data demonstrates that in actual usage three constructions set up a hierarchy prepositional < postpositional < quasi-adpositional that (from left to right) reflects an increasing degree of force dynamics, i.e., the degree to which complements of the adposition indicate an obstacle that resists or hinders the motion along the path. The study thus shows that force dynamics can be a factor that distinguishes between near-synonymous constructions.