懸空

懸空

1. (literal) to suspend in the air
2. (figurative) to hang in the balance
3. (of a position, job, etc.) to be vacant
4. (grammar) to strand

   介詞懸空／介词悬空  ―  jiècí xuánkōng  ―  preposition stranding

   • 2004, 邓思颖 [Sze-Wing Tang], “从南雄珠玑方言看被动句 [Structures of Passives as Illustrated by Zhuji Dialect Spoken in Nanxiong, Northern Guangdong Province]”, in 《方言》, number 2, page 112:

     存在这个空的成分违反了汉语介词不得悬空的限制，因此不合语法。 [MSC, simp.]
     存在這個空的成分違反了漢語介詞不得懸空的限制，因此不合語法。 [MSC, trad.]

     Cúnzài zhège kōng de chéngfèn wéifǎnle Hànyǔ jiècí bùdé xuánkōng de xiànzhì, yīncǐ bù hé yǔfǎ. [Pinyin]

     The existence of this null element violates the restriction in Chinese where prepositions cannot be stranded; thus, it is ungrammatical.