Preposition stranding and pied-piping in English and Laali

Abstract

This paper contrasts preposition stranding and pied-piping operations in English and Laali. The analysis is carried out in the light of Chomsky’s Minimalist Program. It results from this paper that English attests both preposition stranding and pied piping whereas Laali attests pied piping only. Indeed, in English, the complement can move out of the PP and leave its head P behind thanks to wh-movement, relativization, pseudopassivization and sluicing processes. In addition, English allows all the PP to be pied-piped out of the verb domain to the front position of the derived sentence. However, in Laali, preposition stranding operation is impossible as the preposition constitutes a barrier for its complement movement. As such, pied piping appears as a compensation to Laali which disallows preposition stranding.