Unique focus : languages without multiple wh-questions / Marina Stoyanova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stoyanova, Marina.

Series:

Linguistik aktuell ; Bd. 123.

Linguistik aktuell = Linguistics today ; LA 123

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Interrogative.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Focus (Linguistics).

Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub. Co., c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This monograph focuses on an interesting typological property shared by four languages: the ungrammaticality of multiple wh-questions in Irish, Berber, Italian and Somali. It contains a broad discussion of data related to the grammar of wh-questions, a comparative analysis of wh-constructions in the four languages, and a theoretical account for the observed phenomenon. The analysis is based on the minimalist syntax theory as developed by Chomsky since 1995. It takes up the standard assumption that wh-phrases are typical representatives of elements bearing new information, in theoretical terms referred to as information focus. Most importantly, in the languages without multiple wh-questions the information focus is licensed in a unique syntactic position. The basic claim is that languages with unique focus are languages without multiple wh-questions. The analysis makes possible the classification of the languages without multiple wh-questions into the crosslinguistic typology of wh-constructions. Furthermore, this book is a contribution to the better understanding of information structure in natural languages, especially of focusing phenomena.

Contents:

Unique Focus

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Central Problem: The Languages without Multiple Wh-Questions

1.2 Chapter Outline

1.3 Theoretical Preliminaries

CHAPTER 2. PREVIOUS ANALYSES OF THE UNGRAMMATICALITY OF MULTIPLE WH-QUESTIONS

2.1 The Condition on COMP Adjunction

2.2 Wh-Questions as Instances of Unique Information Focus

2.3 Wh-Questions in a Clitic Polysynthetic Language

CHAPTER 3. THE OVERVIEW WHAT IS POSSIBLE IN WHICH LANGUAGE?

3.1 Italian

3.2 Somali

3.3 Berber

3.4 Irish

3.5 Generalisations and Working Hypotheses

CHAPTER 4. ANALYSIS

4.1 The Head-Adjacency Generalisation and the Uniqueness Hypothesis Revisited

4.2 Wh-Questions in Languages without Multiple Wh-Questions and their Answers as Focus Constructions

4.3 Wh-in-situ and Optional Licensing of Wh-Phrases in a Focus Position

4.4 Multiple Wh-Questions as Focus Recursion

4.5 Multiple Wh-Fronting as Focus Cluster

4.6 A Feature Checking Analysis for Languages without Multiple Wh-Questions

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

The series Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612152184

9781282152182

1282152181

9789027291523

9027291527

OCLC:

648354269