The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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(33) V [ PP P DP]
This analysis, however, may face some objections. It could be argued that the
construction does not involve an independent syntactic P-head projecting a PP. The Ps
may be viewed as verbal particles attached to the verb forming with it a complex
verbal head, as in (34), or they might be viewed as Case-markers adjoined to the DP,
as in (35) (cf. Rauh 1991):
(34) [ V V-P] DP
(35) V [ DP P-DP]
The plausibility of (34) stems from the assumption that the very occurrence of the P-
morpheme is triggered by the thematic structure of a verb, and even more importantly,
it seems that the choice of a specific P-morpheme is, to some extent, dictated by the
verb. (35) is plausible since the function of P is related to the Case of its DP
complement.
In what follows I will argue for the analysis in (33), in which P is analyzed as an
independent syntactic head projecting a PP. I will address the relation between the
verb and the preposition in 3.3.3.
Let us start with the observation that the P-morphemes under discussion are pied
piped by their complement (36), which is typical of prepositions, but not of verbs
(37b) or verbal particles (37d) (Webelhuth 1992, Horvath 2001):
(36) a. al mi hu somex?
on who he relies
“On whom does he rely?”
b. be-mi hu ma’amin?
in-who he believes
“In whom does he believe?”