Harvard Linguistics 110 - Class 22 Wh

Linguistics 110 Class 22 (12/11/02)

Zhang/Öztürk/Quinn

WH-Movement (1) WH-movement • WH-words in English: who, what, where, when, why, how, which • WH-phrases belong to different categories: who, what NP which book, what book NP how tall AP in which year PP where, when, why, how AdvP (PP) • WH-elements can occupy normal dependent positions, acting as complements and other dependents (i.e. no movement transformation involved): Echo-questions: You bought what? Quiz-show questions: Tchaikovsky was born in what year? • Constituents containing WH-elements often occur in moved positions: IP ru NP I’ | ru N’ I VP | {pres} | N V’ I ru V CP → CP wonder ru ru Spec C’ NP C’ ru g C IP N’ ru g NP I’ N | ru [+WH] N’ I VP who | {pres} | N V’ John ru V NP → NP like | [+WH] N’ t | N [+WH] who

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(2) Why not to C? • Direct questions: (a) Who does John like? (b) Which book did John buy? (c) In what year was Tchaikovsky born? • Sentences (a)—(c) provide two reasons why WH-elements don’t move to C, what are they? • Restrictions on movement: head-to-head, XP-to-XP. (3) Subject questions (a) Who ran the marathon? (b) Who talked to John? Which surface tree structure is correct? CP ru Spec C’ ru C IP ru NP I’ | ru N’ I VP | {past} | N V’ [+WH] ru who V NP run @ the marathon

CP ru NP C’ | ru N’ C IP | ru N NP I’ [+WH] [+WH] ru who t I VP {past} | V’ ru V NP run @ the marathon

(4) Long distance movement (a)

(Which book)i do you think Bill likes ti? (I think Bill likes Moby Dick.)

(b)

*Which book do you think who likes?

(c)

Who do you think likes Sarah?

Question: does I-to-C movement occur in a subject question? Assume that the [+WH] trace t in Spec of IP can block affix hopping. (5) WH-movement (or lack thereof) in other languages • Chinese: WH-words remain in their Deep Structure position (WH-in-situ) Ni shi shei? you are who ‘Who are you?’

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Ni xihuan shenme? you like what ‘What do you like?’ Shei pao-le malasong who run-ASP marathon ‘Who ran the marathon?’ Ta shuo Zhangsan xihuan shei? He said Zhangsan like who ‘Who did you say Zhangsan likes?’ Wo xiang zhidao Zhangsan xihuan shei. I want know Zhangsan like who ‘I want to know who Zhangsan likes.’ • French: WH-words can optionally move to the Spec of CP. tu as vu qui you have seen who ‘Who did you see?’ qui as-tu vu who have-you seen ‘Who did you see?’ • One theory of WH-structure: ➥ WH-elements universally move to Spec of CP, either overtly (from Deep Structure to Surface Structure, as in English), or covertly (not in Surface Structure, but in Logic Form, or LF, as in Chinese). ➥ LF is the representation that provides information for the semantics, or meaning, of the utterance. Deep Structure

Surface Structure

Phonetic Form

Logic Form

➥ Reasoning behind LF: English: WH-element as indirect question—Spec of embedded CP WH-element as direct question—Spec of matrix CP What gives you the direct vs. indirect distinction in Chinese?

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Zhangsan zhidao Lisi xihuan shei. Zhangsan know Lisi like who ‘Zhangsan knows who Lisi likes.’ Zhangsan juede Lisi xihuan shei? Zhangsan think Lisi like who ‘Who does Zhangsan think Lisi likes?’ (6) Syntax conclusion • Hierarchical structure. Long distance dependency, ambiguity, recursion. • How to identify constituents. • Constituents within constituents. X’-Theory. • Inadequacy of phrase structure rules that build constituents. Subcategorization. Transformation.

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