The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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In various languages some Ps are clitic-like and must therefore be attached to the
hosting head (for Hebrew, see Berman 1978, 1981; Grodzinsky 1988, and the analysis
of the Hebrew P-morpheme le- (‘to’) in chapters 4 and 5). 13
To conclude, morphologically, P is clearly functional as it is non-flexional and
possibly affixal or phonetically null.
(iii) Syntactic properties
Syntactic realization of complement: Ps certainly have a very strong tendency to
occur with a complement, which is consistent with their classification as functional.
There are, however, languages, among them Hebrew, where some locative Ps realize
their complement optionally (3). 14 ’ 15 The phonetically null complement can be
anaphoric (3b,c) or deictic (3c,d) (given a rich enough previous context):
(3) a. ha-yeladim hitrocecu misaviv la-bayit 16
the-children ran around to+the-house
“The children were running around the house.”
b. rina avra ba-minhara i , ve-dan rac misaviv Ø i
Rina passed in+the-tunnel, and-Dan ran around (it)
c. kše dan i ciyer, ha-yeladim hitrocecu misaviv Ø i/j
when Dan painted the-children ran around [Dan/some location]
“When Dan was painting, the children were running around.”
13 See also Webelhuth (1992), where all Ps are assumed to function as affixes.
14 For similar data from Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese see Zribi-Hertz 1984.
15 Hebrew locative expressions such as bifnim (‘inside’), me’axor (‘behind’), standardly analyzed as
PPs, may seem problematic, as they cannot occur with a complement (i). Interestingly, these
expressions in colloquial Hebrew can occur with the definite determiner and be modified by a
possessive phrase (ii), which may indicate that their classification as PPs should be reconsidered. I
leave this issue for future research.
(i) a. hu pizer praxim bifnim/me’axor
“He spread flowers inside/behind [something].”
b. *hu pizer praxim bifnim/me’axor ha-bayit
“He spread flowers inside/behind the house.”
(ii) kol ha-bifnim/ha-me’axor šelo haya male avak
all the-inside/the-behind his was full dust
“Its whole interior/back was full of dust.”
16 When followed by a syntactic definite marker ha- (‘the’), Hebrew prepositions le- (‘to’), be- (‘in’)
and ke- (‘as’) are contracted and pronounced as one morpheme (i):
(i)
*le-ha-yalda vs. la-yalda
to-the-girl vs. to+the-girl