LINGUIST List 12.147

Mon Jan 22 2001

Qs: Negation/Partial Movement/ "wh-in-situ" Langs

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

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1. Melanie.Klepp, negation, partial movement and wh-in-situ

I have a query regarding negation and multi-clause
sentences in wh-in-situ languages which I hope someone can help me
with.

The partial wh-movement construction in (1a) is ungrammatical when a
negated element (e.g. a negative quantifier, particle) shows up in the
matrix clause, as in (1b). The corresponding full wh-movement
constructions in (2) are both grammatical.

(1a)	Was glaubt Peter, wen Thomas gesehen hat?
	what believes Peter whom Thomas seen has
	"Whom does Peter think Thomas has seen?"

(1b)	*Was glaubt keiner/Peter nicht, wen Thomas gesehen hat?
	what believes nobody/Peter not whom Thomas seen has?

(2a)	Wen glaubt Peter, dass Thomas gesehen hat?
	whom believes Peter that Thomas seen has
	"Whom does Peter think Thomas has seen?"

(2b)	Wen glaubt keiner/Peter nicht, dass Thomas gesehen hat?"
whom believes nobody/Peter not that Thomas seen has
	"Whom does nobody/Peter not think Thomas has seen?"

This is known as the Negation Asymmetry (Rizzi, 1992). Several
proposals have been made to account for this difference, including
Beck (1995). She provides a syntactic account where a wh-phrase may
not move across a negative barrier at LF since it blocks LF-movement
(Beck, 1995:122). However, the filter does not apply at PF, therefore
overt movement is fine.

My question is: Would the negated version of the Chinese sentence (3)
below be ungrammatical or not and what would it be? And, more
broadly, does anyone have information on how multi-clause wh-in-situ
constructions with negative matirx clauses are formed and accounted
for?

(3)	Zhangsan yiwei Lisi mai-le shenme?
	Zhangsan thinks Lisi bought what
	"What does Zhangsan think Lisi bought?"

(4)	?????????????????????????????????
	Zhangsan not thinks Lisi bought what
	"What does Zhangsan not think Lisi bought?"

Thanks a lot!