The origin of a postpositional construction based on a region noun is a syntactic construction .

Diagram 3: Postpositional phrase with intermediate noun
Nd Nd/h P
[ [ noun phrase noun ]NP postposition ]PoP
E12 kal digí̱ =na̱
tree bottom =in
‘below the tree’ (s.d.)

Nd is typically a concrete noun phrase
and Nd/h is typically, though not necessarily a region noun which takes Nd as a possessive attribute.
The complex NP thus formed depends on P, typically a primitive local postposition.