After decades of debate in linguistic theory, the lexical/functional status of adpositions is still controversial. Lexicon-Grammar mixed languages such as Media Lengua, spoken in Northern Ecuador, are excellent testing cases for such grammatical categories: This mixed language displays a conservative Quichua morphosyntactic frame while approximately 90% of its lexical roots are relexified from Spanish. Thus, due to the lexical-functional split Media Lengua displays, whether adpositions in this language are realized in Quichua or Spanish can speak to their status as a lexical/functional category. This study reports data from recent field research, conducted with speakers trilingual in Media Lengua, Quichua and Spanish who participated in two tasks (video description and translation). The results show a split between lexical and functional adpositions in Media Lengua, manifested in the dual-language realization of complex (multimorphemic) items: The lexical part of these complex items is relexified from Spanish while the functional part is retained in Quichua – even when participants are structurally primed. This suggests that Media Lengua across communities systematically follows Quichua morphosyntactic rules.

经过数十年的语言理论辩论，介词的词汇/功能状态仍然存在争议。Lexicon-Grammar混合语言，例如在厄瓜多尔北部使用的Media Lengua，是此类语法类别的绝佳测试案例：这种混合语言显示出保守的Quichua形态句法框架，而大约90％的词根均来自西班牙语。因此，由于使用了词法功能拆分媒体Lengua显示器，无论该语言中的陈述是用Quichua还是西班牙语实现的，都可以说明其作为词法/功能类别的地位。这项研究报告了来自最近的现场研究的数据，该研究是由Media Lengua，Quichua和Spanish的三种语言的讲者进行的，他们参加了两项任务（视频描述和翻译）。结果表明，Media Lengua中的词法和功能性命题之间存在分歧，这表现在复杂（多态）项的双语言实现中：这些复杂项的词性部分从西班牙语中被贬义，而功能性部分保留在盖丘亚语中，即使参与者在结构上已做好准备。这表明跨社区的媒体Lengua系统地遵循了Quichua形态句法规则。