On the Typology of Wh-Questions
, L. L.-S. Cheng 1991
This thesis proposes that the typological distinctions among languages with respect to the formation of wh-questions can be attributed to the availability of question particles and the properties of wh-words. It is argues that the availability of question particles correlates with the lack of syntactic wh-movement. A theory of Clausal Typing is proposed to account for this correlation. In particular, languages employ either question particles or syntactic wh-movement to type a clause as a wh-question. It is shown that the Principle of Economy of Derivation predicts that (a) no language has the option of alternation between the two methods of Clausal Typing and thus there are no languages with “optional movement” of wh-words and (b) movement of one wh-word is sufficient to type a clause as a wh-question. Apparent counterexamples to the proposal are discussed. It is argued that in languages with apparent optional fronting of wh-words (e.g. Egyptian Arabic), sentences with a clause initial wh-word are clefts. In addition, it is shown that languages which front multiple wh-words in multiple questions, the wh-words are morphologically complex and need to satisfy a licensing requirement independent of Clausal Typing.
The internal structure of wh-words in an “in-situ” language, namely Mandarin Chinese is also examined. It is shown that wh-words in Mandarin are indefinite NPs, which lack quantificational force, and they are polarity sensitive. In addition, two LF operations are discussed: Quantifier Raising and LF wh-movement. It is shown that the lack of scope ambiguities in Mandarin can be attributed to lexical properties of indefinite NPs. Arguments for and against LF wh-movement as well as the landing site of wh-words at LF are examined. It is shown that evidence against LF wh-movement does not hold and arguments against adjunction of wh-words to IP at LF will be provided.
Thesis Supervisor: Noam Chomsky
Title: Institute Professor
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 8
1.0 Preliminaries 8
1.1 A Brief Introduction to Mandarin Chinese 10
1.2 Outline of the thesis 15
Chapter 2 Wh-movement and Clausal Typing 18
2.0 Introduction 18
2.1 The Clausal Typing Hypothesis 23
2.1.1 Clausal Typing and The Vacuous Movement Hypothesis 31
2.2 Clausal Typing vs. Selection 32
2.3 Properties of a Typing Particle 34
2.3.1 Typing Particles and Interrogative Force 36
2.4 Predictions 37
2.5 The Q-morpheme 40
2.5.1 Katz and Postal (1964) 40
2.5.2 Baker (1970) and Bresnan (1972) 41
2.5.3 Against Having a Q-morpheme in English 43
2.6 Yes-no Particles in Movement Languages? 44
2.6.1 English whether and if 44
2.6.2 Polish czy ‘whether’ 47
2.7 Typing Particles and Language Acquisition 50
Chapter 3 Optional and Multiple Fronting of Wh-words 52
3.0 Introduction 52
3.1 Optional Fronting Languages 53
3.1.1 Common Characteristics in Optional Fronting Languages 53
3.1.1.1 The Fronting of Wh-arguments 53
3.1.1.2 The Fronting of Wh-adjuncts 56
3.1.1.3 Wh-in-situ in Optional Fronting Languages 57
3.1.2 Egyptian Arabic 59
3.1.2.1 A Note on Reduced Clefts 63
3.1.3 Bahasa Indonesia 65
3.1.3.1 Clefts vs. Wh-fronting 65
3.1.3.2 Weak Crossover and Parasitic Gaps 67
3.1.4 Palaun 71
3.1.5 Wh-adjuncts 73
3.2 Multiple Fronting Languages 76
3.2.1 Multiple Fronting of Wh-words 77
3.2.2 Wh-phrases and Indefinites 78
3.2.2.1 Heim’s Theory of Indefinites and the Interpretation
of Wh-words 81
3.2.2.2 Wh/indefinites in Multiple Fronting Languages 84
3.2.3 Landing Sites of Multiply Fronted Wh-words 88
3.2.3.1 Multiple Extraction of Wh-words from a Clause 89
3.2.3.2 No Wh-islands in Bulgarian-type Languages 91
3.2.3.3 Constituent Structure of Fronted Wh-words 92
3.2.3.4 Order among the Fronted wh-words 93
3.2.3.5 Rudin’s Account 95
3.2.4 A Modified Multiple Adjunction Theory 97
3.2.4.1 Licensing by C0 101
3.2.4.2 Adjunction to IP vs. Movement to Spec of CP 101
3.2.5 More on the Wh/indefinite Readings 103
3.2.5.1 Polarity Reading 104
3.2.5.2 D-linked Reading 106
3.2.5.3 English Wh/indefinites 107
3.2.6 Some Speculations on the Wh/indefinites in the Australian
Languages 108
Chapter 4 Wh-words in Mandarin Chinese 111
4.0 Introduction 111
4.1 Lexical Ambiguities of Wh-words 112
4.1.1 Interrogative Reading of Wh-words 112
4.1.2 Wh-words as Existential Quantifiers 112
4.1.3 Wh-words as Universal Quantifiers 115
4.2 Wh-words as Indefinites 116
4.2.1 Heim (1982) and Diesing (1990) 116
4.2.2 Wh-words as Polarity Items 122
4.3 Indefinites in Mandarin Chinese 127
4.3.1 Indefinite Subjects 128
4.3.2 Subject Wh-words 132
4.3.3 The Null Wh-particles in Mandarin 133
4.4 Any in English 134
4.5 Wh/indefinites and Lack of Syntactic Movement 136
4.6 The Adverb dou 137
4.6.1 General Properties of dou 138
4.6.2 Previous Analyses of dou 139
4.6.2.1 Lee’s (1986) Analysis 139
4.6.2.2 Chiu’s (1990) Analysis 141
4.6.3 The Locality Condition on dou 147
4.6.3.1 Where is dou generated? 148
4.6.3.2 A Proposal 152
4.6.3.3 Clause-boundedness of dou 156
4.6.4 Licensing by dou 161
4.6.4.1 A Note on Topicalization 166
Chapter 5 Quantifier Raising and LF Wh-movement 169
5.0 Introduction 169
5.1 Quantifier Raising 169
5.1.1 Quantifier-quantifier Interactions 169
5.1.1.1 Quantifier-quantifier Interactions in Mandarin
Chinese 170
5.1.1.2 Quantifier-quantifier Interactions in English 174
5.1.2 Wh-quantifier Interactions 180
5.1.2.1 Wh-quantifier Interactions in English 181
5.1.2.2 Scope Reconstruction 184
5.1.2.3 Wh-quantifier Interaction in Mandarin Chinese 187
5.2 In-situ Wh-words and LF 193
5.2.1 Huang’s Arguments for LF Wh-movement 194
5.2.1.1 Selectional Requirements 194
5.2.1.2 Locality Effects at LF 196
5.2.1.3 Scope of Wh-words 197
5.2.2 Pesetsky’s Argument for LF Wh-movement 198
5.2.3 Selection 200
5.2.4 Aoun and Li (1990b) 201
5.2.4.1 Deriving Island Effects without LF Wh-movement 203
5.2.4.2 Questions with only and D-linking 205
5.2.4.3 Movement of the Q-morpheme and Head
Movement Constraint 211
5.2.5 Interpreting D-linked Wh-phrases: Reinhart’s (1990)
Argument 212
5.2.5.1 A Post-LF Level 216
5.2.6 LF-movement of Wh-words: to Spec of CP or Adjunction
to IP? 217
References 225