Dear Florent, Nich, Rett and friends,

from what I am looked up,

(1) antaraa is the ablative form of antara, usually in Pali, we treat
such words on its own, and call them indeclinables.

(2) antaraa is an adverb, and all adverbs in Pali are indeclinables.

In the sentence:
Te gehassa ca rukkhassa ca _antaraa_ kii.li.msu.
They played _between_ the house and the tree.

here, _between_ is truly an adverb of place.
[it is regrettable this usage is not elucidated in the PED]

if the sentence is:
They played in the mud _between_ the house and the tree.

then, _between_ is a preposition.

(3) antaraa can also be used in the prepositional sense, as given in
the PED, and governs the accusative, genitive and locative cases.

(4) in Pali, prepositional usage is expressed by the locative and
instrumental cases to indicate

a. time: rattiya.m [Loc.], in the night
b. place: udake [Loc.], in the water
c. means: rathena [Ins.], by chariot/car

(5) another way of expressing prepositions is by the use of Upasagga
(more info: Duroiselle 514-516,521). The topic of prefixes is covered
in An Elementary Pali Course Lesson 21
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/message/7707

Hope that helps.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Nich wrote:

> Cone's A Dictionary of Pali lists antaraa (in the prepositional
sense 'between') as governing both genitive and accusative. So I guess
both of your sources were right.

Funnily enough, Childers gives it as accusitve & genitive, but the PED
gives it with accusative & locative, but not genitive in prepositional
usage.