5 Wh-movement

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5.2 Wh-questions

(1) a. What languages can you speak? b. Which one would you like? c. Who was she dating? d. Where are you going?

(2) wh-in-situ questions (echo questions in English) a. You can speak what languages? b. You would like which one? c. She was dating who? d. You are going where? in-situ (i.e. ‘in

place)2

Who was she dating?

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(5) Complementiser Condition

An overt complementiser (like that/for/if) cannot have an overt specifier in the superficial structure of a sentence

Cf. wh+that (4) Belfast English (Henry 1995, 107) a. I wonder [which dish that they picked] b. They didn’t know [which model that we had discussed](5) Standard English a. %I wonder [what kind of party that they have in mind] b.*I wonder [what that they have in mind]

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Wh-movement: internal merge (Chomsky 2001)

• Internal merge: movement operations by which an item contained within an existing structure is

moved to a new position within the same structure

• External merge: merger operations which involve taking an item out of the lexical array

cf. head movement: adjunction operation by which one head is adjoined to another

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Trace/trace copies in wh-movement

• Evidence I

- Have-cliticisation

(8) I have/I’ve been to Rome more often than I have/*I’ve to Paris

(I have been)

(9) Cliticisation is barred when a clitic is followed by a null constituent

(12) a. I wonder [how much money they have in their bank account

b. *I wonder [how much money they’ve t in their bank account]

how much money

copying & deletion

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Trace/trace copies in wh-movement

• Evidence II

- Preposition copying (in relative clause)

(14) c. … that fair [for which love groan’d for] (Prologue to Act II. Romeo and Juliet)

In present day English:

(15) a. but if this ever-changing world [in which we live in]

makes you give in and cry, say ‘Live and Let Die’ (Sir Paul McCartney, theme song from the James Bond movie Live and Let Die)

b. IKEA only actually has ten stores [from which to sell from] (Economics reporter, BBC Radio 5)

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- Split / discontinuous spellout

(21) What hope of finding any survivors could

there be what hope of finding any survivors

(22) Joe wonders which picture of himself Jim bought

(23) Joe wonders [which picture of himselfi

[Jimi bought which picture of himself]]

- Reflexive reading

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5.4 Driving wh-movement & auxiliaty inversion

• Edge feature [EF]

(26-7) The EF on C enables it to attract the wh-pronoun where to Spec, CP.

CP ‘EF is always deleted when satisfied’ in English.

PRN/ADV C´

where C TP

[EF] PRN T´

Ø you T VP

are V PRN/ADV

going where

(25) He wants to know [where you are going]9

(24) Interrogative Condition A clause is interpreted as a non-echoic question iff it is a CP with an interrogative specifier (i.e. a specifier containing an interrogative word)

(28) Who were you phoning? (Merge & Move, and then Delete)

(29-30) CP

PRN C´

who C TP

[TNS, EF] PRN T´

were+Ø you T VP

were V PRN

phoning who

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Null yes-no question particle ‘whether’

Evidence-1: Elizabethan English

(32) a. Whether had you rather lead mine eyes or eye your master’s heels?

(Mrs Page, Merry Wives of Windsor, III.ii)

b. Whether does thou profess thyself a knave or a fool?

(Lafeu, All’s Well That Ends Well, IV.v)

Evidence-2: yes-no questions introduced by ‘whether ’ in reported speech

(33) a. ‘Are you feeling better?,’ he asked.

b. He asked whether I was feeling better

Evidence-3: yes-no answers

(34) a. When he asked ‘Did you vote for L.Loudmouth?,’ I said ‘yes’ and you

said ‘no’

b. When he asked whether we voted for L. Loudmouth, I said

Evidence-4: can be tagged by or not

(35) a. Has he finished or not?

b. I can’t say whether he has finished or not

‘yes’ and you said ‘no’ 11

(40) Chain Uniformity ConditionA chain is uniform with regard to phrase structure status (Chomsky 1995, 253)

(39) *Which have you done [which assignment]?

XP X (violates CUC)

(37) Which assignment have you done? (Pied-piping)

(41) Attract Smallest Condition/ASC (explains 37)

A head which attracts a particular type of item attracts the smallest constituent containing such an item which will not lead to violation of any UG principle.

= we move wh-word on its own wherever possible, but if it were prevented, then we move the next smallest possible constituent containing the wh-word 12

(44) Economy Condition Derivations and representations…are required to be minimal, with no superfluous steps in derivations and no superfluous symbols in representations. (Chomsky 1989, 69)

(47) Left Branch Condition/LBC In languages like English, the leftmost constituent

of a nominal expression cannot be extracted out of

the expression containing it.

(Ross, 1967)

Nominal expressions: DP, QP

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5.6 Pied-piping of a superordinate prepositionEF of C triggers mvnt, to Spec-C, of the smallest maximal projection containing

WH-word (cf. T in finite clauses carries an EPP feature)

(49) They asked [to whom he was referring](50) CP

PP C´

to whom C TP

[EF] PRN T´

Ø he T VP

was V PP

referring P PRN

to whom

PIC

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(51) Impenetrability Condition

A constituent in the domain of a complementiser or preposition is impenetrable to (and so cannot be attracted by) a higher head c-commanding the relevant complementiser/preposition.

prevents ‘preposition stranding’

Cf. (52) They asked [who he was referring to] PP

(53) b. How far did they go inside the tunnel? Spec P’

(54) [PP how far [P´ [P inside] the tunnel]] how far

wh-Spec P NP

PIC inside the tunnel

The Impenetrability Condition only bars extraction of a constituent in the domain of (i.e. c-commanded by) the preposition, and the specifier how far is not c-commanded by the preposition inside.

=> The IPC allows material to be extracted from the edge of a Prepositional Phrase, but not from its (c-command) domain.

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(52) they asked [who he was referring to]

(50) CP

Spec C´

who C TP

[EF] PRN T´

Ø he T VP

was V PP

referring PRN P ´

who P PRN

[EF] who

to

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(57) What might he think that she is hiding what?

(63) CP

Spec C´

what C TP

might+Ø PRN T´

he T VP

might V CP

think PRN C ´

what C TP

that she is hiding what

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(57) What might he think that she is hiding what?

(63) CP

Spec C´

what C TP

might+Ø PRN T´

he T VP

might V CP

think PRN C ´

what C TP

that she is hiding what

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Quantifier stranding/floating McCloskey (2000, 2002)

(64) What all did you get for Christmas?

=‘What are all the things which you got for Christmas?’

(65) a. What all do you think that he’ll say that we should buy?

b. What do you think all that he’ll say that we should buy?

c. What do you think that he’ll say all that we should buy?

d. What do you think that he’ll say that we should buy all?

(66) [CP What all [C that] we should buy]

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(76) a. He might think that who has done what?

b. Who might think that he has done what?

c. *What might he think that who has done?

d. *Who what might he think that has done?

e. *What who might he think has done?

(78) Attract Closest Condition

A head which attracts a given kind of constituent

attracts the closest constituent of the relevant kind.

(79) Wh-Attraction Condition

The edge feature on C attracts the smallest possible maximal projection

containing the closest wh-word to move to spec-C

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5.8 Multiple wh-questions

(76) c. Who might he think has done what?

(82) CP

Spec C´

who C TP

[TNS, EF] PRN T´

might+Ø he T VP

might V CP

think PRN C ´

who has done what

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