On the Typology of Wh-Questions

L. L.-S. Cheng, 1991

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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