Starting with Anne Zribi-Hertz’s seminal publications (Zribi-Hertz 1984a,b) orphan prepositions, as ‘avec’ in (1), have received considerable attention from both an empirical and theoretical perspective.
(1) Cette valise, je voyage toujours avec. ‘This suitcase, I always travel with (it)’
The investigation of such orphan prepositions has proven fruitful for our understanding of the properties of prepositions and pronouns alike. Recent research has scrutinized, amongst others, the properties of the prepositions which (dis)allow orphaning, different types of null elements as complements of orphan prepositions, as well as the animacy restrictions on pronouns in PPs. The talks at the workshop assess the current understanding of the phenomenon and further address remaining open questions (e.g., cross-linguistic distribution of orphan prepositions).

Programme (Thursday, December 5th 2024)
14:00-14:15: Introduction
14:15-15:00: Looking for Orphan Prepositions in Martinique Creole
(Anne Zribi-Hertz, Université Paris 8/SFL, CNRS, Loïc Jean-Louis, GRGC, Université Paris 8/SFL)
15:00-15:15: Break
15:15-16:00: ’Adentro’ and ‘là-dedans’: inside deictic prepositions with null complements in Spanish and French
(Michelle Troberg, University of Toronto)
16:00-16:45: Competition and animacy restrictions: French and Spanish PPs as a case
(Yanis da Cunha, Steffen Heidinger, Alina Schwarzenberger, University of Graz)
16:45: Closing discussion

Participation
You are cordially invited to attend the workshop. Participation is free and does not require registration. Please use the following link to attend the workshop.
Zoom Link: https://uni-graz.zoom.us/j/61255095583?pwd=UjQxhgM64CyxYhU4DpIKbQRaBcaB2U.1

Organizers
Yanis da Cunha, Steffen Heidinger, Alina Schwarzenberger
Department of Romance studies, University of Graz
(SFB Language between Redundancy and Deficiency (Austrian Science Fund, Grant 10.55776/F1003))

Contact
Yanis da Cunha (University Graz)
yanis.da-cunha@uni-graz.at

Selected references
Adler, Silvia. 2012. Ellipse et régimes des prépositions françaises. Louvain: Peeters.
Authier, J.-Marc. 2016. French orphan prepositions revisited. Probus 28(2). 231–270.
Heidinger, Steffen. 2024. Types of zero complements in French and Spanish prepositional phrases: New evidence from acceptability judgment experiments. Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics 10(1). 1–29.
Troberg, Michelle. 2020. Les prépositions orphelines : un réexamen à la lumière du SP étendu. Arborescences 10. 185–206.
Zribi-Hertz, Anne. 1984a. Orphan Prepositions in French and the Concept of ‘Null Pronoun’. The Indiana University Linguistics Club.
Zribi-Hertz, Anne. 1984b. Prépositions orphelines et pronoms nuls. Recherches linguistiques 12. 46–91.