Academic Scientific JournalsOn wh-movement in echo-questions and crosslinguistic variation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/bp.2021.3.03Keywords:
echo questions, wh-movement, multiple wh-fronting, phases, parametric variationAbstract
This paper examines echo wh-questions, a rather understudied phenomenon even in extensively described languages such as English. In particular, it focuses on a particular type of echo questions, such as those made in response to a previous declarative (e.g., –Mary said {mumble}./ –Mary said what?) or a previous wh-question (e.g., –Who said {mumble}?/ –Who said what?). Such structures are examined from a comparative perspective, analyzing data from three different languages regarding Multiple wh-Fronting: English vs. Russian, with attention to Spanish. On the one hand, this paper considers the key, cross-linguistically common features of echo questions and discusses their underlying derivational structure. On the other hand, contrary to the standard assumptions that echo questions necessarily require wh-in-situ, this paper focuses on the availability of different options of overt echo wh-movement among the languages under consideration. It is argued that in echo questions, similarly to what happens in canonical interrogatives, wh-movement proceeds successive-cyclically and is subject to parametric variation
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