John Benjamins Publishing Company
The left periphery of multiple wh-questions in Slovenian
Abstract
In this paper I focus on multiple wh-questions in Slovenian and argue for an analysis in which wh-phrases move to the extended left periphery of the sentence. Assuming the Cartographic approach, I consider the order of wh-phrases in Slovenian multiple wh-questions, which was previously described as free, e.g. Golden (1997). While I confirm that the order of wh-phrases in the left periphery is generally free, I show that there are some exceptions, e.g. zakaj ‘why’ and kako ‘how’ tend to precede other wh-phrases. In addition, I show that the order of wh-phrases with respect to focus and topic phrases is free, but that one wh-phrase needs to appear in a clause initial position for a question to get a true wh-question reading. Based on this, I propose that the clause initial wh-phrase moves to the Interrogative Projection, in the sense of Rizzi (2001a), and the remaining wh-phrases to Wh-Projections. Crucially, because wh-movement is not restricted by a requirement on chains, cf. Krapova & Cinque (2005), the order of wh-phrases is free.
Abstract
In this paper I focus on multiple wh-questions in Slovenian and argue for an analysis in which wh-phrases move to the extended left periphery of the sentence. Assuming the Cartographic approach, I consider the order of wh-phrases in Slovenian multiple wh-questions, which was previously described as free, e.g. Golden (1997). While I confirm that the order of wh-phrases in the left periphery is generally free, I show that there are some exceptions, e.g. zakaj ‘why’ and kako ‘how’ tend to precede other wh-phrases. In addition, I show that the order of wh-phrases with respect to focus and topic phrases is free, but that one wh-phrase needs to appear in a clause initial position for a question to get a true wh-question reading. Based on this, I propose that the clause initial wh-phrase moves to the Interrogative Projection, in the sense of Rizzi (2001a), and the remaining wh-phrases to Wh-Projections. Crucially, because wh-movement is not restricted by a requirement on chains, cf. Krapova & Cinque (2005), the order of wh-phrases is free.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction with a state of the art in generative Slovenian syntax 1
- On second position clitics crosslinguistically 23
- Participles come back to Slovenian 55
- Restructuring restructuring 69
- Clitics are/become Minimal(ist) 91
- The left periphery of Slovenian relative clauses 129
- Unaccusatives in Slovenian from a cross-linguistic perspective 145
- The modal cycle vs. negation in Slovenian 167
- The left periphery of multiple wh-questions in Slovenian 193
- A relative syntax and semantics for Slovenian 221
- The Slovenian future auxiliary biti as a tenseless gradable evidential modal 253
- Not two sides of one coin 283
- Quo vadis, Slovenian bipartite pronouns? 313
- Language index 329
- Subject index 331
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction with a state of the art in generative Slovenian syntax 1
- On second position clitics crosslinguistically 23
- Participles come back to Slovenian 55
- Restructuring restructuring 69
- Clitics are/become Minimal(ist) 91
- The left periphery of Slovenian relative clauses 129
- Unaccusatives in Slovenian from a cross-linguistic perspective 145
- The modal cycle vs. negation in Slovenian 167
- The left periphery of multiple wh-questions in Slovenian 193
- A relative syntax and semantics for Slovenian 221
- The Slovenian future auxiliary biti as a tenseless gradable evidential modal 253
- Not two sides of one coin 283
- Quo vadis, Slovenian bipartite pronouns? 313
- Language index 329
- Subject index 331
