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A multidominance account for conjoined questions in Romanian

  • Dafina Ratiu
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Romance Linguistics 2010
This chapter is in the book Romance Linguistics 2010

Abstract

This paper discusses conjoined questions in Romanian, where two selected WHs (i.e. a subject WH phrase and an object WH phrase) appear coordinated in clause-initial position. By comparing conjoined questions with selected WHs with conjoined questions with non-selected WHs, I argue for a bi-clausal analysis for both types, where one single IP is pronounced. I show that conjoined questions with selected WHs, as opposed to conjoined questions with non-selected WHs, raise two problems: (i) the shared IP can only be pronounced once and (ii) the shared IP has to be pronounced in the second conjunct. I argue that while an ellipsis/sluicing analysis fails, the multidominance analysis provides a straightforward account for these two problems. In particular, linearization algorithms for multidominance structure (all) correctly predict that the shared IP appears only once in the second conjunct.

Abstract

This paper discusses conjoined questions in Romanian, where two selected WHs (i.e. a subject WH phrase and an object WH phrase) appear coordinated in clause-initial position. By comparing conjoined questions with selected WHs with conjoined questions with non-selected WHs, I argue for a bi-clausal analysis for both types, where one single IP is pronounced. I show that conjoined questions with selected WHs, as opposed to conjoined questions with non-selected WHs, raise two problems: (i) the shared IP can only be pronounced once and (ii) the shared IP has to be pronounced in the second conjunct. I argue that while an ellipsis/sluicing analysis fails, the multidominance analysis provides a straightforward account for these two problems. In particular, linearization algorithms for multidominance structure (all) correctly predict that the shared IP appears only once in the second conjunct.

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