Why can’t Predicative PPs be Pied-Piped?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Prepositions are either stranded or pied-piped when PPs function as arguments, but they never undergo pied-piping when they are used predicatively. This paper generalizes that predicates in general do not undergo pied-piping, and then claims that this generalization follows from the fact that the wh-feature is not compatible with predicates. The wh-feature must co-occur with a presupposed constituent, but the predicate is usually not presupposed, and as a consequence, the wh-feature cannot percolate into the predicate. Taking it one step further, this paper shows that the presupposition requirement follows from the fact that (i) the wh-feature percolation gives the effect of extending the restriction of the wh-operator and (ii) the restriction of a two-place operator like a wh-operator must be presupposed. To conclude, the impossibility of pied-piping of predicative PPs originates from the fact that (i) pied-piping takes place on account of wh-feature percolation, (ii) wh-operator percolation extends the restriction of the wh-operator, and (iii) predicates cannot be part of the restriction.