[Lingtyp] adverb 'when' used as prepositiom

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

Had a long visit yesterday from my linguistics colleague Luc Vartan Baronian, at UQ à Chicoutimi, during which he asked if I knew about cases where a subordinating adverbial of place -- 'where' -- has developed a use as a preposition, as French où has in Québec. This from a joint research project with Hugo Saint-Amant--Lamy, at UQ à Rimouski.(Some examples, from a large database, below.) I dimly recalled a discussion on this list about such examples (possibly involvng other subordinating adverbials as well, though in Québec French it's just the place adverbial that's affected).Can someone point me to this discussion? Luc isn't a subscriber to this list, but I'll forward responses on to him. (Or you could add   baronian at uqac.ca  as a recipient of your mailing.)

...

Exemples de <où SN> [AZ: SN abbreviating "syntagme nominal" = Noun Phrase)]:
 
-- Va te placer où l'étoile.
-- Il faut tourner à droite où l'église.
-- Où les lilas, on mettrait des chaises longues.
-- J'ai laissé mes clés où l'ordinateur.
-- J'ai mal au pied, où la petite bosse.
 
[AZ: They're also researching the geographical distribution of the variant within Québec.]

...

Arnold