Wh- movement

Wh- words & phrases: DPs (1) a. Who is BYU playing?

b. BYU is playing [DP Gonzaga ].

(2) a. What did the sharks destroy? b. The sharks destroyed [DP the canoe ].

(3) a. Which team is BYU playing? b. BYU is playing [D this ] team.

(4) a. Whose mascot can jump over the fence? b. [DP Their ] mascot can jump over the fence.

(5) a. What building did your company build? b. My company built [D that ] building.

There are 2 types of wh- words

Wh- words & phrases: AdvPs (6) a. How did the sharks destroy the canoe?

b. The sharks destroyed the canoe [PP with their teeth ].

(7) a. When did the sharks destroy the canoe? b. The sharks destroyed the canoe [AdvP last night ].

(8) a. Why did the sharks destroy the canoe? b. The sharks destroyed the canoe [AdvP because they

were angry ].

(9) a. Where did BYU play their last game? b. BYU played their last game [PP in Denver].

There are 2 types of wh- words

Wh- question typology While there is some variation cross-linguistically as to where the wh- word appears, there seems to only be three possibilities: i. Some languages, such as English, place the wh- word at the beginning of the sentence. (2) a. What did the sharks destroy t?

b. The sharks destroyed [DP the canoe ].

Typology

Wh- question typology ii. Some languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Turkish, do not (wh insitu languages).

Chinese (SVO) (10) Ni janjian-le shei?

You see-ASP who ‘Who did you see?’ (Huang 1982)

Japanese (SOV): (11) John-wa nani-o kat-ta-no?

John-TOP what-ACC buy-PAST-Q ‘What did John buy?’ (Ishizuka PC) Typology

Wh- question typology iii. Other languages, such as Hindi, place the wh- word immediately to the left of the verb. Hindi (SOV): (12) us-ko kis-ne dekhaa?

him who-ERG saw ‘Who saw him?’ (Mahajan PC)

Typology

Correlations with word order Placement of the wh- word is not random. There are correlations between wh- position and basic word order.

Greenberg’s (1963) Universal #12: “If a language has dominant VSO in declarative sentences, it always puts the interrogative word or phrases first in interrogative questions; if it has dominant SOV in declarative sentences, there is never such an invariant rule.” VSO = wh- movement

Typology

Correlations with word order Kiche [Mayan: Guatemala]: (13) Xuch'äj le ixäq le läq.

wash.PAST the woman the dish ‘The woman washed the dish.’ (Bigelow, et. al. 2005)

(14) Jäs xuloq are' iwär ? what buy.PAST he yesterday ‘What did he buy yesterday?’ (Bigelow, et. al. 2005)

SVO languages pattern by and large like VSO languages, though there are some exceptions.

Typology

Correlations with word order Languages that do not front their wh- phrases tend to use special markers to form yes-no questions, and many of these languages use the same marker in yes-no questions as well as wh- questions.

Japanese (SOV): (15) John-wa nani-o kat-ta-no?

John-TOP what-ACC buy-PAST-Q ‘What did John buy?’

(16) John-ga sono hon-o kat-ta-no? John-NOM that book-ACC buy-PAST-Q ‘Did John buy that book?’ (Ishizuka PC)

Typology

Other possibilities (17) [CP Who does Mary think [CP John saw]]? (18) [CP *Mary thinks [CP who John saw]]?

German (some dialects) (19) [CP Was glaubst du, [CP mit wem er gesprochen hat]]?

what think you with whom he spoken has 'With whom do you think that he spoke?’

Hungarian (20) [CP Mit gondolsz, [CP hogy kit látott János]]?

whatacc you.think that whoacc saw János 'Who do you think that János saw?’

Typology

Wh- questions in English (2) a. What did the sharks destroy t?

b. The sharks destroyed [DP the canoe ]. T precedes the subject •  T to C movement because of the [+Q] feature of C

The wh word or phrase precedes T+C • wh- moves to Spec CP because of [+wh] feature of C

Wh- movement

A mystery… (2) a. What did the sharks destroy t?

b. The sharks destroyed [DP the canoe ].

c. What destroyed the canoe? • Why is there no T to C movement in (2c)? •  Is wh- movement occurring in (2c)?

Wh- movement

Evidence for wh- mvmt • Theta role assignment and case.

V assigns the theme theta role to its comp and checks acc case of the object. If the wh- word doesn’t move, 1) how is the theme theta role assigned to a DP in spec CP & 2) how is accusative case checked? (2) a. What did the sharks destroy t?

[+acc] [+acc]

b. The sharks destroyed [DP the canoe ]. [+acc] [+acc]

theme

theme

did the sharks destroy what?

Me trying to convince you that I'm right

Evidence for wh- mvmt • Wh- phrases behave as if they were in the position of the trace with respect to binding.

(21) [DP Which picture of himselfi] does hei like?

Evidence for wh- mvmt • You can't fill the position that the wh- word has moved from. (22) *Who have they arrested the man? (23) *Where were you going to the party? (24) *What languages can you speak French?

You can’t fill it because there’s a trace there!

Me trying to convince you that I'm right

Successive cyclic movement Wh- movement can occur from a lower clause to a higher clause, but it must occur as a series of steps. This is called successive cyclic movement. (26) Who do you think [CP t C Bill hates t]?

Other types of wh- movement

(26) 

Successive cyclic movement Wh- movement can occur from a lower clause to a higher clause, but it must occur as a series of steps. This is called successive cyclic movement. (26) Who do you think [CP t C Bill hates t]? This explains the ungrammaticality of (27) *Whoi do you think [CP whatj C [TP ti bought tj]? (27)’ Whoi do you think [CP ti C [TP ti bought what]?

Other types of wh- movement

Other evidence • Child English (29) What do you think [CP what Cookie Monster eats t]?

(age 5;0) (30) Who do you think [CP who Grover wants to hug t?]

(age 4;9)

Other types of wh- movement

Other evidence Partial wh- movement languages German (some dialects) (19) [CP Was glaubst du, [CP mit wem er gesprochen hat]]?

what think you with whom he spoken has 'With whom do you think that he spoke?’

Hungarian (20) [CP Mit gondolsz, [CP hogy kit látott János]]?

whatacc you.think that whoacc saw János 'Who do you think that János saw?’

Other types of wh- movement