LINGUIST List 13.1913

Sat Jul 13 2002

Qs: English wh-islands, Italian & Humorism

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Directory

  1. Toru Ishii, English wh-islands
  2. Giampaolo Poletto, Italian and Humourism

Message 1: English wh-islands

 Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 03:57:07 +0000
From: Toru Ishii <tishiikisc.meiji.ac.jp>
Subject: English wh-islands

Dear All,

It has been observed that A'-extraction out of an untensed indirect
question is not so bad (for some speakers nearly perfect) especially
when the extracted element is D-linked or a relative operator:

(1) a. My old Toyota, which my mechanic 
 remembered/wondered how to fix t, ...
 b. Which of the old cars did your 
 mechanic remember/wonder [how to fix
 t]?

According to Frampton (1990) "Parastic gaps and the theory of
wh-chains," grammaticality judgements on wh-islands are also
influenced by whether the extracted element is associated with a
theta-marked complement or not. I'd like to know whether this
generalization is true. Especially, I'd like to know grammaticality
judgements on the following examples, whether they are better/worse
than (1) or as acceptable as (1):

(2) a. My syntax assignment, which I 
 remembered/wondered [when to give to 
 my instructor], ...
 b. Which of the assignments did you 
 remember/wonder [when to give to your 
 instructor]?
(3) a. Professor Ford, who I remembered/
 wondered [when to give my syntax 
 assignment to], ...
 b. Professor Ford, to whom I remember/
 wondered [when to give my syntax 
 assignment], ...
 c. Which instructor did you remember/
 wonder [when to give your syntax 
 assignment to]?
 d. To which instructor did you 
 remember/wonder [when to give your 
 syntax assignment]?
(4) a. Jack, to whom I remembered/wondered 
 [when to talk], ...
 b. Jack, whom I remembered/wondered 
 [when to talk to], ... 
 c. To which person did you remember/
 wonder [when to talk]?
 d. Which person did you remember/wonder 
 [when to talk to]? 
(5) a. Tokyo station, to which I remembered/
 wondered [how to go], ...
 b. Tokyo station, which I remembered/
 wondered [how to go to], ... 
 c. To which station did you remember/
 wonder [how to go]?
 d. Which station did you remember/wonder 
 [how to go to]?

(6) a. ... the reason (why) I remembered/
 wondered [where to go] ...
 b. For what/which reason did you 
 remember/wonder [where to go]?
(7) a. ... the way (how) I remembered/
 wondered [which problem to solve] ...
 b. In what/which way did you remember/
 wonder [which problem to solve]?
(8) a. ... the day (when) I remembered/
 wondered [where to go] ...
 b. On what/which day did you remember/
 wonder [where to go]?
(9) a. ... the place (where) I remembered/
 wondered [when to stay] ...
 b. In what/which place did you remember/
 wonder [when to stay]?

I'll post a summary. Thanks.

Toru Ishii
Meiji University
Tokyo, JAPAN
tishiikisc.meiji.ac.jp
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Message 2: Italian and Humourism

 Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 11:18:58 +0200
From: Giampaolo Poletto <janospallibero.it>
Subject: Italian and Humourism

My name is Giampaolo Poletto,

and for my doctoral studies on Italian humourism and the teaching of
Italian as a foreign language, I am looking for information on
humouristic or comic authors and texts, contemporary or not, in use in
the teaching of Italian as a foreign language.

Thank you,

Giampaolo Poletto

Garda, 12.07.2002
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