The licensing of wh-in-situ questions
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Carolina González
Abstract
This project investigates the intonational characteristics of information-seeking wh-in-situ and yes/no questions in Spanish. Data from eight Spanish-Basque bilinguals show that while the former tend to display final rising contours, the latter are primarily circumflex, especially in participants with higher Basque dominance. Our results provide evidence that both question types are licensed by a null intonational morpheme, as proposed by Cheng and Rooryck (2000) for French. However, this morpheme in Spanish is encoded as an elevated high tone, rather than a rising contour. Furthermore, Spanish wh-in-situ questions show higher tonal ranges than in French (Déprez et al. 2013). We suggest that this results from focus assignment on the wh-word and its obligatory placement at the end of the intonational phrase.
Abstract
This project investigates the intonational characteristics of information-seeking wh-in-situ and yes/no questions in Spanish. Data from eight Spanish-Basque bilinguals show that while the former tend to display final rising contours, the latter are primarily circumflex, especially in participants with higher Basque dominance. Our results provide evidence that both question types are licensed by a null intonational morpheme, as proposed by Cheng and Rooryck (2000) for French. However, this morpheme in Spanish is encoded as an elevated high tone, rather than a rising contour. Furthermore, Spanish wh-in-situ questions show higher tonal ranges than in French (Déprez et al. 2013). We suggest that this results from focus assignment on the wh-word and its obligatory placement at the end of the intonational phrase.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Language acquisition
- The development of intonation in L2 Spanish 11
- Insights into the cognition of mood selection in L2 learners of Spanish 33
- The licensing of wh-in-situ questions 53
- What derivational suffixes should we teach in Spanish as a Second Language courses? 75
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Part II. Theoretical and descriptive approaches
- The seem-class verb paradigm and restructuring in Romance 97
- The Progressive-to-Imperfective shift 119
- The aspectual structure of the adjective 137
- Mood in future-framed adverbials 161
- Syntactic and prosodic marking of subject focus in American English and Peninsular Spanish 183
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Part III. Language contact and variation
- Demystifying Salvadoran [s θ ] 207
- Afro-Peruvian Spanish declarative intonation 229
- Subject-predicate code-switching 249
- The differing behavior of loanwords in the Spanish of technology and of fashion and beauty 265
- Futurity and probability in Spanish as a heritage language 285
- Examining the (mini-) variable swarm in the Spanish of the Southeast 303
- Casting light on the Spanish creole debate 327
- Index 343
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Language acquisition
- The development of intonation in L2 Spanish 11
- Insights into the cognition of mood selection in L2 learners of Spanish 33
- The licensing of wh-in-situ questions 53
- What derivational suffixes should we teach in Spanish as a Second Language courses? 75
-
Part II. Theoretical and descriptive approaches
- The seem-class verb paradigm and restructuring in Romance 97
- The Progressive-to-Imperfective shift 119
- The aspectual structure of the adjective 137
- Mood in future-framed adverbials 161
- Syntactic and prosodic marking of subject focus in American English and Peninsular Spanish 183
-
Part III. Language contact and variation
- Demystifying Salvadoran [s θ ] 207
- Afro-Peruvian Spanish declarative intonation 229
- Subject-predicate code-switching 249
- The differing behavior of loanwords in the Spanish of technology and of fashion and beauty 265
- Futurity and probability in Spanish as a heritage language 285
- Examining the (mini-) variable swarm in the Spanish of the Southeast 303
- Casting light on the Spanish creole debate 327
- Index 343
