Against PF-repair: preposition stranding under sluicing in Jordanian Arabic

Abstract This paper examines apparent preposition-stranding under sluicing in Jordanian Arabic. On the surface, JA appears to violate the Preposition-Stranding Generalization (PSG): overt P-stranding is categorically banned, yet P-less sluices are nevertheless accepted. I argue that this mismatch is merely superficial. Drawing on diagnostics adapted from sluicing in Arabic more broadly (i.e., contrast sluicing, wh-type asymmetries, cleft morphology, connectivity, and resumption), I show that JA employs two distinct strategies. Some cases are true sluices, constructed via wh-movement plus TP-deletion, with a resumptive pronoun inside the ellipsis site; other cases are pseudosluices, reduced wh-clefts with copular/pronominal morphology. Crucially, sluicing in JA tracks the independent distribution of resumptives: sluices are possible only with wh-expressions that license resumptives (e.g., miin ‘who’, wayn ‘where’), but not with those that do not (e.g., ʔimta ‘when’). Connectivity effects, including Case and Voice matching, follow under the resumptive analysis. I conclude that JA instantiates a hybrid grammar of sluicing, where resumption and clefts coexist as derivational sources, preserving the PSG while explaining the surface appearance of P-less remnants. The findings highlight the value of microvariation for testing universals in ellipsis and reinforce the view that sluicing is constrained by syntax rather than PF repair.