What prepositional object gaps tell us about Merge and linearization

Abstract

A pronoun coreferential with the subject of have can be omitted in the complement of P in certain dialects of British English. I propose that this gap is manufactured by virtue of a language-universal operation, a specific form of late merger, and an operation characteristically available to British English, a lower argument’s leapfrogging a higher one. We also claim that the fact that the presence of the gap prohibits the theme of have from being Ā-extracted can be taken as a corollary of a particular algorithm for linearization. Consequently, this phenomenon constitutes further evidence for these features of the grammar.