P-Stranding under Sluicing in a Non-P-Stranding Language?

Merchant (2001) formulates the following generalization, based on a survey of twenty languages:

(1) A language L will allow preposition stranding under sluicing iff L allows preposition stranding under regular wh-movement. (p. 92)

One language included in his survey is Serbo-Croatian (SC). The SC data he provides as evidence for the generalization in (1) are these (p. 97):

(2)

1. a. Sa    kim         je Ana govorila?
   with whom.INST is Ana spoken
   'Who did Ana speak with?'

2. b. *Kim           je govorila Ana sa?
   whom.INST is spoken    Ana with

3. c. Ana je govorila sa    nekim,          ali   ne   znam
   Ana is spoken   with someone.INST but not I.know
   *(sa)    kim.
   with whom.INST
   'Ana spoke with someone, but I don't know who with.'

However, in what follows I first show that on the basis of these data, we cannot establish whether sluicing gives rise to P-stranding in SC or not. I then show that SC, surprisingly, does seem to allow P-stranding under sluicing, unlike under wh-movement. Upon closer scrutiny, however, such facts do not necessarily threaten Merchant's generalization in (1). This is because there are data indicating that the loss of the P under sluicing may not be due to P-stranding.

1 Sa Kim 'with whom.INST' versus *Kim 'whom.INST'

As mentioned above, the data in (2) seem to support the generalization in (1). However, we cannot rely on those data in making conclusions about P-stranding in SC. Consider (3)-(5).

(3) Marko se    ponosi      Marijom    / nekom djevojkom /
Marko REFL takes.pride Marija.INST / some    girl.INST    /
nečim.
something.INST
'Marko is proud of Marija / some girl / something.'

(4) *(Sa)   kim          se    Marko ponosi?
with whom.INST REFL Marko takes.pride
'Who is Marko proud of ?'

(5) (?*Sa)    kojom djevojkom / (?*Sa)   čim         se    Marko
with which girl.INST    /     with what.INST REFL Marko
ponosi?
takes.pride
'Which girl / What is Marko proud of ?'

The example in (3) shows that the verb ponositi se 'to take pride' selects an instrumental object without the P sa 'with'. The examples in (4) and (5) show that the instrumental animate wh-phrase kim has to appear with sa 'with' even when sa is not required by the syntactic selectional properties of the verb, while other instrumental wh-phrases, such as čim 'what' or kojom djevojkom 'which girl' in (5) do not.¹ This state of affairs suggests that there is simply no bare form kim;² kim always occurs with a P.³ Since Ps with kim seem to be "unstrandable" for independent reasons, we should not make conclusions regarding P-stranding based on examples involving this wh-phrase. When we look at how PPs not involving kim behave with respect to P-stranding under wh-movement and under sluicing, the results are surprising. Some examples are given in (6).

(6)

1. a. Protiv   čega      je Petar glasao?
   against what.GEN is Petar voted
   'What did Petar vote against?'

2. b. *Čega      je Petar glasao protiv?
   what.GEN is Petar voted  against

3. c. Petar je glasao protiv    nečega,            ali  ne  znam
   Petar is voted    against something.GEN but not I.know
   (protiv) čega.
   against what.GEN
   'Petar voted against something, but I don't know what.'

4. d. Sa    kojom djevojkom je Ana govorila?
   with which girl.INST     is Ana spoken
   'Which girl did Ana speak with?'

5. e. *Kojom djevojkom je Ana govorila sa?
   which  girl.INST    is Ana spoken   with

6. f. Ana je govorila sa    nekom djevojkom, ali  ne
   Ana is spoken    with some    girl.INST     but not
   znam   (sa)  kojom djevojkom.
   I.know  with which girl.INST
   'Ana spoke with some girl, but I don't know with which girl.'

In these examples, Ps cannot be stranded under wh-movement, but they can go missing under sluicing. Note that this type of behavior is limited to simple sluicing contexts. It does not occur in other types of ellipsis such as VP-ellipsis (7), comparative ellipsis (8), or gapping (9), or in some constructions that do involve sluicing such as sluicing under sprouting (10) or multiple sluicing...