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Chapter 5. Illusory islands

On ‘wh-questions in Vietnamese’
  • Nigel Duffield
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Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vietnamese Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vietnamese Linguistics

Abstract

This paper offers an extended critique of an article by Bruening & Tran (2006) concerning wh-questions in Vietnamese. Drawing on both language-internal and cross-linguistic evidence, attention is brought to bear on several empirical shortcomings in Bruening & Tran’s analysis, as a result of which the constituency of wh-question constructions in this language is misrepresented. An alternative treatment is proposed which attempts to remedy these difficulties, and, in so doing, may also explain some additional distributional and interpretive anomalies.

Abstract

This paper offers an extended critique of an article by Bruening & Tran (2006) concerning wh-questions in Vietnamese. Drawing on both language-internal and cross-linguistic evidence, attention is brought to bear on several empirical shortcomings in Bruening & Tran’s analysis, as a result of which the constituency of wh-question constructions in this language is misrepresented. An alternative treatment is proposed which attempts to remedy these difficulties, and, in so doing, may also explain some additional distributional and interpretive anomalies.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  5. Section A. Phonetics and phonology
  6. Chapter 2. Intonation in southern Vietnamese interrogative sentences 9
  7. Chapter 3. Vietnamese dialects 31
  8. Section B. Morphology and syntax
  9. Chapter 4. A more perfect unification 69
  10. Chapter 5. Illusory islands 81
  11. Section C. Semantics
  12. Chapter 6. Temporal reference in Vietnamese 115
  13. Chapter 7. Semantics of Vietnamese đã 141
  14. Chapter 8. (In)definiteness of Vietnamese noun phrases 155
  15. Chapter 9. Scalar implicatures and the semantics of wh- indefinites in Vietnamese 181
  16. Section D. Language aquisition and use
  17. Chapter 10. Vietnamese children’s interpretation of definite noun phrases 215
  18. Chapter 11. Interpretation of numerals under memory load by Vietnamese speakers 241
  19. Chapter 12. Gender in Vietnamese 253
  20. Chapter 13. Effects of grammatical roles and parallelism on referential form production in Vietnamese spoken and written narratives 275
  21. Index 301
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.211.05duf

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  5. Section A. Phonetics and phonology
  6. Chapter 2. Intonation in southern Vietnamese interrogative sentences 9
  7. Chapter 3. Vietnamese dialects 31
  8. Section B. Morphology and syntax
  9. Chapter 4. A more perfect unification 69
  10. Chapter 5. Illusory islands 81
  11. Section C. Semantics
  12. Chapter 6. Temporal reference in Vietnamese 115
  13. Chapter 7. Semantics of Vietnamese đã 141
  14. Chapter 8. (In)definiteness of Vietnamese noun phrases 155
  15. Chapter 9. Scalar implicatures and the semantics of wh- indefinites in Vietnamese 181
  16. Section D. Language aquisition and use
  17. Chapter 10. Vietnamese children’s interpretation of definite noun phrases 215
  18. Chapter 11. Interpretation of numerals under memory load by Vietnamese speakers 241
  19. Chapter 12. Gender in Vietnamese 253
  20. Chapter 13. Effects of grammatical roles and parallelism on referential form production in Vietnamese spoken and written narratives 275
  21. Index 301
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