Preposition stranding, sometimes called P-stranding, is the syntactic construction in which a preposition appears without an object. This construction is widely found in Germanic languages, including English and the Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic); whether or not German and Dutch exhibit legitimate preposition stranding is still debated. P-stranding is also found in languages outside the Germanic family, such as Vata and Gbadi, two languages in the Niger-Congo family, and certain dialects of French spoken in North America. Syntax, originating from the Greek words συν (syn, meaning co- or together) and τάξις (táxis, meaning sequence, order, arrangement), can in linguistics be described as the study of the rules, or patterned relations that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... In linguistics, objects are elements of the predicate of a sentence. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Scandinavian can mean: a resident of, or anything relating to Scandinavia any North Germanic language a chess opening, Scandinavian Defense the aviation corpotation Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ...

In English, some grammarians frown upon preposition stranding; see Disputed English grammar. Cases of disputed English grammar arise when individuals disagree about what should be considered correct English in particular grammatical constructions. ...

Preposition stranding in English

In English, prepositon stranding is commonly found in three types of constructions: Wh-questions, pseudopassives, and relative clauses. Wh-questions are questions that cannot be simply answered by saying Yes or No. They begin with a question word, such as What, Why, Who, Why, How, Where, When, Whose. ... A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun. ...

• In Wh-constructions, the object of the preposition is a Wh-word in deep structure but is fronted as a result of the Wh-movement. It is commonly assumed in transformational approaches to syntax that the movement of a constituent out of a phrase leaves a silent trace (often indicated by a t). In the case of Wh-movement leaving a stranded preposition, the Wh-word is fronted to the beginning of the interrogative clause, leaving a trace after the preposition:

What are you talking about t?

• Pseudopassives are the result of the movement of the object of a preposition to fill an empty subject position for a passive verb. This phenomenon is comparable to regular passives, which are formed through the movement of the object of the verb to subject position. In pseudopassives, unlike in Wh-movement, the object of the preposition is not a Wh-word but rather a noun or noun phrase:

This chair was sat on t

• Relative clauses in English can also exhibit preposition stranding, whether with a complementizer introducing the clause or without:

This is the book that I told you about t

This is the book I told you about t

Wh-movement or wh-fronting is a syntactic phenomenon whereby interrogative words (sometimes called wh-words) appear at the beginning of an interrogative sentence. ... Transformational grammar is a broad term describing grammars (almost exclusively those of natural languages) which have been developed in a Chomskian tradition. ... In linguistics, a trace is a notional ghost of a syntactic entity that can be regarded as being in an utterance for the purposes of syntactic analysis. ... Passive has several meanings: In grammar it describes a grammatical voice. ...

Preposition stranding in French

Certain dialects of French seem to have developed preposition stranding as a result of linguistic contact with English. P-stranding is found in areas where the francophone population is under intense contact with English, including certain parts of Alberta, Northern Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Louisiana. For example, Prince Edward Island French permits all three types of preposition stranding:

• Wh-movement: Qui-ce que tu as fait le gâteau pour?

Whom did you bake the cake for?

• Pseudopassives: Robert a été parlé beaucoup de au meeting.

Robert has been much talked about at the meeting

• Relative clauses: Tu connais pas la fille que je te parle de.

You don't know the girl that I'm talking about

However, not all dialects of French allow P-stranding to the same extent. For instance, Ontario French restricts preposition stranding to relative clauses with certain prepositions; in most dialects, stranding is impossible with the prepositions à (to) and de (of).

References

• An Internet pilgrim's guide to stranded prepositions
• King, Ruth. 2000. The Lexical Basis of Grammatical Borrowing: a Prince Edward Island French Case Study. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Haegeman, Liliane, and Jacqueline Guéron. 1999. English Grammar: a Generative Perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Ichi Takami, Ken. 1992. Preposition Stranding: From Syntactic to Functional Analyses. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Hornstein, Norbert, and Amy Weinberg. 1981. Case theory and preposition stranding. Linguistic Inquiry 12:55–91.