Possessive Relatives and (Heavy) Pied-Piping

Abstract

Abstract. This article discusses the phenomenon of pied piping in restrictive relative clauses in the Germanic languages Dutch, German and English. Since it concerns possessive relatives primarily, an integrated approach to the syntax of relativization and attributive possession is sought for. Possessive relatives directly reflect the three basic types of attributive possession, namely the prepositional, the genitive and the possessive pronoun construction. It is claimed that the promotion theory of relative clauses can be succesfully combined with an analysis of possession in which the prepositional construction is taken to be the basis for the other types. Furthermore, it is shown that heavy pied piping is normally dependent on the presence of a prepositional phrase. In general, pied piping is claimed to be a possible consequence of overt or covert head movement. Finally, the effect of the so-called R-transformation on pied piping and preposition stranding in relative clauses is discussed. The different possibilities shown by English, Dutch and German are argued to be consequences of the theoretical possibilities of creating a syntactic relation, namely by XP movement, overt head movement, or covert movement.

On Certain Properties of Pied-Piping

“…b. Wogegen stimmt Fritz immer? where.against votes Fritz always Lutz and Trissler (1997) and De Vries (2005) have proposed that (48a) involves movement of the R-pronoun to Spec,P, with subsequent wh-movement of bare wo, whereas in (48b) wo first incorporates into the P head, a process that in turn forces pied-piping of the PP, excorporation being impossible. Apparent optionality of pied-piping is reduced to whatever causes optionality between head movement and phrasal movement of wo.…”