The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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(iv) Froud 2001 is a psycholinguistic study, where prepositions (without clausal
context) are shown to be treated on a par with determiners and quantifiers (i.e. D) by
Brocca’s (agrammatic) aphasia patients. Consequently, P is argued in Froud (2001) to
be a functional category. 22
(v) Some locative Ps exhibit the so-called bottom-up dependency (Van
Riemsdijk 1998). More specifically, the choice of a particular P-morpheme is
determined by its nominal complement (e.g. the picture is hanging on/*in the wall,
but in/*on the air). Van Riemsdijk (1998) notes that this is reminiscent of gendernumber
agreement between a noun and its determiner (D), the latter being dependent
on the former. This is illustrated in (12) for French: 23
(12) a. la table
the-fem.sg. table-fem.sg.
b. le livre
the-masc.sg. book-masc.sg
In light of the above, the primary goal of the theory of P developed in this
chapter is achieved. Based on the most distinctive criteria and corroborated by
additional empirical evidence I have shown that P is a functional category. With this
in mind, I turn to examine the role(s) of this category in syntax.
2.2 The role of P
Functional heads are known to fulfill more than one specific role in syntax. For
instance, C can head an argumental CP (e.g. C [±wh] ), but it can also head a predicative
(relative) CP (C [+mod/+pred] ) (Rizzi 1990, Siloni 1997). The same has been argued for
the functional head D. It can determine the referential capacity of the nominal, thus
22 See, however, Friederici 1982, Grodzinsky 1988 and references cited therein for another view of P
that emerges from psycholinguistic studies.
23 See also Zwarts and Winter (2000), where locative Ps are shown to exhibit inferential regularities
that are comparable with quantified expressions. For instance, like the determiner every the P inside is
transitive (A is inside B; B is inside C A is inside C). The preposition near is symmetric (A is near
B B is near A) similar to the determiner some.