Preposition stranding versus pied-piping: Negative Shift of prepositional complements in dialects of Faroese

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0cm 14.2pt 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">In Faroese, Negative Shift of a prepositional complement is subject to variation across dialects, as well as to variation across speakers of the same dialect as regards preposition stranding and pied-piping. In particular, Negative Shift of a prepositional complement is possible for all speakers in the presence of a main verb <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in situ</em>, stranding the preposition. Only if the main verb undergoes finite verb movement does dialectal and inter-speaker variation arise. In Icelandic, in contrast, the choice between preposition stranding and pied-piping during Negative Shift seems to be independent of verb position and to be lexically determined by the verb-preposition combination instead.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 14pt; margin: 0cm 14.2pt 12pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">         </span>These asymmetries will be accounted for within Fox and Pesetsky's (2003, 2005) cyclic linearization model, which requires non-string-vacuous movement to proceed through the left edge of Spell-out domains, deriving cross-linguistic variation as to Negative Shift from differences in the availability of these left-edge positions. Thereby, pied-piping is considered a last resort strategy, possible only if the prepositional complement cannot undergo Negative Shift on its own due to the unavailability of the relevant left-edge position.</span></span></p>