The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

3
Note that at this stage of the theory, the X-bar schema was not yet extended to
the grammatical formatives, referred to later as functional categories (i.e. I(nflection)
and C). Consequently, in the absence of any other kind of syntactic heads except the
lexical ones, it was reasonable to consider P a lexical head, given that its phrase
structure possibilities are very similar to those of N, V and A. 3
Putting aside for now the question whether the classification of P as a (major)
lexical category is adequate, the contribution of Jackendoff’s proposal is enormous.
The recognition of P as a syntactic head stimulated and enabled researchers to study
PPs with respect to various modules of the theory of grammar. Interestingly, though,
the picture which emerges from these studies is not neat. In fact, the only clear thing
seems to be that P is difficult to characterize. The unusual diversity of P is attested in
several dimensions.
(i) The set of roles PPs play is substantially larger than the set of roles played
by any other type of phrase (e.g. VPs, APs). A PP can serve as an argument: either as
an internal argument of certain verbs or nouns (3a,b,c) or as a subject (3d); a PP can
also be an across copula predicate (4a) or a modifier, either verbal or nominal (4b,c):
(3) a. Bart put the book in the drawer.
b. I cannot rely on this drawer.
c. John’s belief in ghosts…/the destruction of the city…
d. Under the table is a good hiding place.
(4) a. The book is on the table.
b. Dan found the book in the drawer.
c. The book under the table is not mine.
(ii) The possible complements taken by Ps vary from nominal to clausal (verbal,
in Grimshaw’s (1991) extended projection sense) ((1a,b) repeated as (5a,b),
respectively), and from argumental (e.g. DP) to predicative (e.g. NP, AP) (6):
3 The term ‘lexical’ is (at least) two-ways ambiguous: (i) It is used literally, referring to entities in the
lexicon, regardless of their classification (e.g. that, will, about, cat, love, eat, nice); (ii) The term
‘lexical’ is used to refer to the major word-classes such as N, V and A. The theta-assigning potential
and the feature specification assumed for P leave no doubt that the classification of P as ‘lexical’ was
intended in its theoretical sense, namely as a major lexical category.