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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.
Preposition fronting (see English clause syntax § Fronting and zeroing) and stranding can occur when the complement of the PP is an interrogative or relative pronoun, as in the following examples with the relative or interrogative words underlined and the prepositions in bold.
In these flexible cases, preposition phrases can be constructed with a continuous structure (pied-piping) or an alternative discontinuous structure (preposition stranding). [ 9 ] [ 10 ] When pied-piping occurs, the preposition phrase is continuous, because the preposition follows the focused expression to a new position.
the preposition on has what as its complement, but what is moved to the start of the sentence, because it is an interrogative word. This sentence is much more common and natural than the equivalent sentence without stranding: "On what did you sit?" Preposition stranding is commonly found in English, [10] as well as North Germanic languages such ...
The following are single-word prepositions that take clauses as complements. Prepositions marked with an asterisk in this section can only take non-finite clauses as complements. Note that dictionaries and grammars informed by concepts from traditional grammar may categorize these conjunctive prepositions as subordinating conjunctions.
There is no convincing evidence that Churchill said this, and good reason to believe that he did not.) [19] [20] The sentence "does not demonstrate the absurdity of using [prepositional phrase] fronting instead of stranding; it merely illustrates the ungrammaticality resulting from fronting something that is not a constituent". [21] [22]
[7] Fowler's Modern English Usage says, "One of the most persistent myths about prepositions in English is that they properly belong before the word or words they govern and should not be placed at the end of a clause or sentence." [8] Preposition stranding was in use long before any English speakers considered it incorrect.
- Wh-fronting out of object NP resulting in preposition stranding c. Our plan Shelly has indeed uncovered part of. - Topicalization out of object NP resulting in preposition stranding. Also, topicalization is similar to wh-fronting insofar as the islands and barriers to wh-fronting are also islands and barriers to topicalization: a.