Preposition stranding or p-stranding is the syntactic construction in which a so-called stranded, hanging, or dangling preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its corresponding object; for example, at the end of a sentence. The term preposition stranding was coined in 1964, predated by stranded preposition in 1949. Linguists had previously identified such a construction as a sentence-terminal preposition or as a preposition at the end. Preposition stranding is found in English and other Germanic languages, as well as in Vata and Gbadi (languages in the Niger–Congo family), and certain dialects of French spoken in North America. P-stranding occurs in various syntactic contexts, including passive voice, wh-movement, and sluicing.
Wh-movement and P-stranding Wh-movement—which involves wh-words like who, what, when, where, why and how—is a syntactic dependency between a sentence-initial wh-word and the gap that it is associated with. Wh-movement can lead to P-stranding if the object of the preposition is moved to sentence-initial position, and the preposition is left behind. P-stranding from wh-movement is observed in English and Scandinavian languages. The more common alternative is called pied piping, a rule that prohibits separating a preposition from its object, for instances in Serbo-Croatian and Arabic languages. English and Dutch use both rules, providing the option of two constructions in these situations.
Preposition stranding allowed under wh-movement
In English An open interrogative often takes the form of a wh- question (beginning with a word like what or who). P-stranding in English allows the separation of the preposition from its object, while pied piping allows carrying the preposition along with the wh- object. From the examples below, we can see the two options.
Which town did you come from? From which town did you come? What are you talking about? About what are you talking?
In Danish P-stranding in Danish is banned only if the wh-word is referring to nominative cases. "Peter has spoken with <whom>", the wh-word <whom> is the accusative case. Therefore, p-stranding is allowed.
In Dutch Directional constructions
R-pronouns
In French Standard French requires Pour qui est-ce que tu as fait le gâteau? For whom did you bake the cake? Some dialects, such as Prince Edward Island French, permit
Preposition stranding disallowed under wh-movement
In Greek Wh-movement in Greek states that the extracted PP must be in Spec-CP, which means the PP (me) needs to move with the wh-word (Pjon). It can thus be seen that Greek allows pied piping in wh-movement but not prepositional stranding (* indicates ungrammaticality).
In Spanish Pied-piping is the only grammatical option in Spanish to construct oblique relative clauses. Since pied-piping is the opposite of p-stranding, p-stranding in Spanish is not possible (* indicates ungrammaticality).
In Arabic
Emirati Arabic (EA) P-stranding in EA is possible only by using which-NPs that strand prepositions and follow them with IP-deletion.
The preposition (fi) should be moved together with the wh-word (ʔaj) to make this sentence grammatical. It should be:
Libyan Arabic (LA) P-stranding in wh-movement sentences is normally banned in LA. However, a recent study found that a preposition seems to be stranded in a resumptive wh-question.
Sluicing and p-stranding Sluicing is a specific type of ellipsis that involves wh-phrases. In sluicing, the wh-phrase is stranded while the sentential portion of the constituent question is deleted. The preposition is stranded inside the constituent questions before sluicing. Some languages allow prepositional stranding under sluicing, while other languages ban it. The theory of preposition stranding generalization (PSG) suggests that if a language allows preposition stranding under wh-movement, that language will also allow preposition stranding under sluicing. PSG is not obeyed universally; examples of the banning of p-stranding under sluicing are provided below.
Preposition stranding under sluicing
In English Prepositional stranding under sluicing is allowed in English because prepositional phrases are not islands in English.
John laughed at someone, but I don't know whom he laughed at.
In Danish
In Spanish
In Arabic
Emirati Arabic
Libyan Arabic
P-stranding in other situations
Directional constructions
In Dutch A number of common Dutch adpositions can be used either prepositionally or postpositionally, with a slight change in possible meanings. For example, Dutch in can mean either in or into when used prepositionally, but only mean into when used postpositionally. When postpositions, such adpositions can be stranded:
short-distance movement:
Another way to analyze examples like the one above would be to allow arbitrary "postposition + verb" sequences to act as transitive separable prefix verbs (e.g. in + lopen → inlopen), but such an analysis would not be consistent with the position of in in the second example. (The postposition can also appear in the verbal prefix position: [...] dat hij zo'n donker bos niet durft in te lopen [...].)
Pseudopassives
In English Pseudopassives (prepositional passives or passive constructions) are the result of the movement of the object of a preposition to fill an empty subject position for a passive verb. The phenomenon is comparable to regular passives, which are formed through the movement of the object of the verb to subject position. In prepositional passives, unlike in wh-movement, the object of the preposition is not a wh-word but rather a pronoun or noun phrase:
This bed looks as if it has been slept in.
In French Some dialects permit proposition-stranding. Robert a été parlé beaucoup de au meeting. 'Robert was much talked about at the meeting.' Standard French bans it. On a beaucoup parlé de Robert au meeting.
Relative clauses
In English Relative clauses in English can exhibit preposition stranding with or without an explicit relative pronoun:
This is the book that I told you about. This is the book I told you about.
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