Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam
It is generally thought that wh-in-situ, like overt movement, is potentially unbounded. At the same time, certain languages have been argued to disallow long-distance wh-in-situ. This paper argues that even in languages that show apparent clause-boundedness effects, wh-in-situ, like wh-movement, can...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Netherlands
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113876 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9095-0680 |
| _version_ | 1811088435461488640 |
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| author | Aravind, Athulya |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Aravind, Athulya |
| author_sort | Aravind, Athulya |
| collection | MIT |
| description | It is generally thought that wh-in-situ, like overt movement, is potentially unbounded. At the same time, certain languages have been argued to disallow long-distance wh-in-situ. This paper argues that even in languages that show apparent clause-boundedness effects, wh-in-situ, like wh-movement, can in principle cross an arbitrary number of clauses. Failure to license a wh-phrase across a clause boundary, when it occurs, can be shown to result from the interaction between wh-agreement and independent operations affecting embedded clauses. Evidence will be drawn primarily from Malayalam (Dravidian), which has been argued to disallow long-distance wh-in-situ with finite embedded clauses. I will show that the relevant factor for wh-licensing is not finiteness, but Ā-movement of embedded clauses, an operation that is common with finite CPs. The core of the problem lies in the fact that interrogative C is a generalized [Ā]-probe that can interact with a number of featurally more specific goals, including the [Ā]-features on the head of the moving clause. It will be shown that this approach can account for a number of facts about Malayalam wh-question formation, including selective transparency of certain finite clauses for long-distance wh-licensing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:02:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/113876 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:02:09Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Springer Netherlands |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1138762022-09-28T17:53:07Z Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam Aravind, Athulya Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Aravind, Athulya It is generally thought that wh-in-situ, like overt movement, is potentially unbounded. At the same time, certain languages have been argued to disallow long-distance wh-in-situ. This paper argues that even in languages that show apparent clause-boundedness effects, wh-in-situ, like wh-movement, can in principle cross an arbitrary number of clauses. Failure to license a wh-phrase across a clause boundary, when it occurs, can be shown to result from the interaction between wh-agreement and independent operations affecting embedded clauses. Evidence will be drawn primarily from Malayalam (Dravidian), which has been argued to disallow long-distance wh-in-situ with finite embedded clauses. I will show that the relevant factor for wh-licensing is not finiteness, but Ā-movement of embedded clauses, an operation that is common with finite CPs. The core of the problem lies in the fact that interrogative C is a generalized [Ā]-probe that can interact with a number of featurally more specific goals, including the [Ā]-features on the head of the moving clause. It will be shown that this approach can account for a number of facts about Malayalam wh-question formation, including selective transparency of certain finite clauses for long-distance wh-licensing. 2018-02-22T20:12:14Z 2018-05-06T05:00:05Z 2017-07 2016-05 2018-01-24T07:07:09Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0167-806X 1573-0859 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113876 Aravind, Athulya. “Licensing Long-Distance Wh-in-Situ in Malayalam.” Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, vol. 36, no. 1, Feb. 2018, pp. 1–43. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9095-0680 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11049-017-9371-2 Natural Language & Linguistic Theory Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. Springer Science+Business Media B.V. application/pdf Springer Netherlands Springer Netherlands |
| spellingShingle | Aravind, Athulya Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam |
| title | Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam |
| title_full | Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam |
| title_fullStr | Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam |
| title_full_unstemmed | Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam |
| title_short | Licensing long-distance wh-in-situ in Malayalam |
| title_sort | licensing long distance wh in situ in malayalam |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113876 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9095-0680 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT aravindathulya licensinglongdistancewhinsituinmalayalam |