The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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(75) dat Jan het boek (op de plank) zette (*op de plank)
that Jan the book (on the shelf) put (on the shelf)
(Den Dikken 1995, (20))
In (74) op zoveel mensen (‘on so-many people’), op zondagochtend (‘on Sundaymorning’)
and aan Marie (‘to Mary’) are PPs. As expected, they can be moved. In (75)
op de plank (‘on the shelf’) is P’ according to the analysis in (72a), and a PP according
to (72b). The fact that op de plank (‘on the shelf’) in (75) cannot be extraposed can be
accounted for, if the structure is as in (72a); we do not expect a P’ constituent to move.
If the structure is as in (72b), we expect the Locative PP to be able to extrapose exactly
as in (74), contrary to facts. Thus, as noted in Den Dikken 1995 (attributed to Hoekstra
1984), failure to undergo extraposition is an unambiguous indication that the
prepositional constituent in question is a SC predicate. 40
In sum, on the basis of binding phenomena and extraposition in Dutch, I conclude
that locative verbs such as put are two-place predicates, whose internal argument is a
prepositional SC (SC PP ). In the following section I will further discuss the structure of
the Locative SC, but before that, the following clarification is necessary.
On the fairly accepted assumption, which can be traced back to Stowell 1981,
1983; Rothstein 1983; Kayne 1984; Hoekstra 1984, among others), SC is viewed as an
(additional) syntactic realization of an argument (or an adjunct), projected from a lexical
head such as A, N or V (Williams 1980, Rothstein 1983, 1995). As I assume that P is a
functional category, the claim that it can head a SC may seem surprising. Note,
however, that P R (realized by a variety of prepositions, among them the locative ones) is
assumed to have an internal and external argument slot, namely it is interpreted as a
two-place predicate-argument relation (see chapter 2). Therefore, P R can head a SC.
.
40 The fact that extraposition is possible in the Dative construction in Dutch (74c) argues against Den
Dikken’s (1995) proposal that Dative constructions involve a SC as in (i). Under his proposal, the Goal
PP is predicted not to extrapose, contrary to facts. Given that only PPs undergo extraposition, it also
indicates that the Goal argument in Dutch is a PP, rather than a DP as in Hebrew (4.2).
(i) … V [ PP=SC DP Theme P PP Goal ]