Wh questions CAS LX 522 Syntax I Wh questions are information seeking questions involving a wh word At long last 11b Wh movement 9 1 9 3 What will they bake Observe that what is basically the object of bake And look how far away it is from bake the thing that assigns it a role Who what when where why HoW which Cf also echo questions I drank WHAT Also notice that T has moved to C here too like it does in yes no questions wh Wh words are a little bit like pronouns standing in for whatever category of thing we d like information about These interrogative expressions are different from non interrogative pronouns and demonstratives wh A wh word has the same category as its non wh counterpart therefore wh words come in several different categories That will they bake What where when are differentiated from that there then in being interrogative This is a feature of the wh word wh How are wh questions formed What we have in English wh questions is like a limited form of V2 The analysis of wh questions is the same The T head moves to C The wh expression moves to SpecCP Let s suppose that the reason mechanism moving T to C is the same as in yes no questions We have an interrogative C with clause type Q When the uclause type feature of T is valued by Q it is strong What Who When Where How Why Which wh D wh D human wh Adv temporal wh Adv locational wh Adv manner wh Adv reason wh D uN What will they bake To start out we have a vP and TP as usual The only unusual thing so far is that we have a whobject what TP DP they T T MP M will vP T M DP v uclause type v V bake v VP V DP what wh 1 What will they bake What will they bake The complementizer C has the information about C clause type and this is a question As TP C before with yes no Q questions we T DP assume that this C they has the feature T MP clause type Q or M Q for short vP M will T As with yes no DP v uclause type questions the VP v uclause type feature of T is strong V DP V v when valued by Q what bake wh As for how what winds up at the C beginning of the sentence we will C treat this essentially Q uwh like we treated DP German V2 they In a wh question C has a uwh feature This forces what to move into SpecCP to check the feature What will they bake T moves to check the now strong uclause type Q feature T MP vP T M DP v uclause type v V bake v VP V DP V bake v VP V DP what wh There are actually other reasons to think this as well but we ll get to them later That is Will they bake cookies is actually something pretty close to Whether will they bake cookies except with a silent whether called Op yes no C wh question C C clause type Q C clause type Q uwh Adger notes a problem however Nothing in our system so far prevents us from using a yes no C with a wh word predicting Will they bake what Will they bake pie Accordingly Adger proposes that there s a wh word even in yes no questions MP vP T M DP v uclause type v This is in fact often supposed in the syntax literature and many languages seem to have a special particle reserved for yes no questions e g English if Mandarin ma Not pictured here Op T M will Looking at wh questions as compared to yesno questions it looks as if there are two kinds of interrogative C T M will T Interrogative Q vs Declarative Q What moves to CP SpecCP and DP checks the uwh C what feature of C wh C TP Q uwh DP they TP Op appears in yes no questions in the same place that wh words do in whquestions and we assume it has a wh feature as well Op is probably like a silent whether wh either CP C DP Op TP wh C Q uwh DP they T T vP will DP v uclause type v V bake VP v V DP pie 2 Subject wh questions Summary so far In wh questions such as What did they bake What is like a pronoun standing in for the theme Wh words are differentiated by having a wh feature The structure of a wh question is like a V2 clause T moves to C The uclause type feature of T is strong when valued as Q The wh word moves to SpecCP This works nicely for all kinds of wh questions The interrogative C has a strong uninterpretable uwh feature What did Toby sign How did Toby sign the press release Why did Toby sign the press release When did Toby sign the press release Where did Toby sign the press release But subject wh questions pose something of a puzzle Who signed the press release Who signed the press release CP DP who wh T past uclause type Q C C TP T C DP Q T uwh DP If this is the structure what is the problem Option one All wh questions work the same way In main clauses T moves to C the wh word moves to SpecCP Nice tidy elegant But we need to re evaluate PTR and do support Option two Subject wh questions are different PTR works the same way everywhere T moves to C in most wh questions but in subject whquestions T stays where it is vP v VP v V DP uInfl past the press release Who signed the press release Option two We ll pursue option two T doesn t move in subject wh questions How might that work Why does T move to C in other questions Merging up to T C Q uwh uclause type on T is strong when valued as uclause type Q Adger s proposal uclause type can be valued as wh There is a decision to make here as we move our analysis forward to handle Who signed the press release v V sign Two ways to go Ancillary assumption uclause type can only be valued from above the only wh word that can value uclause type on T is one that c commands T a subject wh word T T past uclause type vP DP who wh V sign v v VP v V DP uInfl past the press release 3 Who signed the press release Who signed the press release CP Move who to SpecTP EPP Now wh ccommands uclause type and can value it C Q uwh TP DP who wh T DP who wh T past uclause type wh vP DP V sign VP v V DP uInfl past the press release …
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