Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic
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Julia Bacskai-Atkari
Abstract
The article examines embedded constituent questions and relative clauses in West Germanic, arguing that asymmetries regarding doubly filled COMP patterns are due to information-structural differences. While both clause types involve operator movement, they differ crucially regarding the information-structural status of the operator: in interrogatives, the operator can be associated with discourse-new information, while in relative clauses the operator is discourse-old and can be potentially left out. This asymmetry regarding information-structural properties has further important consequences. First, doubling patterns involving an overt operator and an overt complementiser emerge across West Germanic languages in embedded questions but not in relative clauses. Second, the reanalysis of the operator into a complementiser is attested in relative clauses but not in embedded interrogatives.
Abstract
The article examines embedded constituent questions and relative clauses in West Germanic, arguing that asymmetries regarding doubly filled COMP patterns are due to information-structural differences. While both clause types involve operator movement, they differ crucially regarding the information-structural status of the operator: in interrogatives, the operator can be associated with discourse-new information, while in relative clauses the operator is discourse-old and can be potentially left out. This asymmetry regarding information-structural properties has further important consequences. First, doubling patterns involving an overt operator and an overt complementiser emerge across West Germanic languages in embedded questions but not in relative clauses. Second, the reanalysis of the operator into a complementiser is attested in relative clauses but not in embedded interrogatives.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Interface phenomena and language change 1
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Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
- Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
- The object position in Old Norwegian 61
- Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
- On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
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Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
- Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
- Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
- Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
- Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
- Index 253
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Interface phenomena and language change 1
-
Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
- Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
- The object position in Old Norwegian 61
- Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
- On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
-
Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
- Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
- Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
- Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
- Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
- Index 253
