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Title:
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A Minimalist Account of Optional Wh-Movement
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Author:
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Kristin Denham
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~denham/
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Degree Awarded:
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Ohio State University
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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1997
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Syntax
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Subject Language(s):
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Babine
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Director(s):
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Frederick Newmeyer
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Abstract:
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Wh-movement has been assumed to be a parameterized fact about language, and, thus, whether a language has overt wh-movement or not has been assumed to be invariant within a language. Also, Chomsky's recent Minimalist Program only allows overt movement that is motivated by the presence of a strong feature. Languages with weak wh-features do not have overt wh-movement. Under this version of the theory as well, there should be no instances of optional wh-movement within a language. In this dissertation, however, I show that an Athabaskan language, Babine-Witsuwit'en, has two methods of wh-question formation--leaving the wh-word in situ or fronting it. I argue that this kind of optionality can be successfully explained using Minimalist assumptions.
Languages that have been claimed to exhibit optional wh-movement, or superficially look as if they do, are shown to not have true wh-movement (movement to Spec of CP). Rather, I argue that the fronting is motivated by features other than wh-features and that the wh-phrases move to projections other than CP. I then argue that Babine-Witsuwit'en (and perhaps Ancash Quechua and Malay) DO exhibit optional wh-movement by demonstrating how the positions of their wh-phrases differ from those of non-wh-phrases; by ruling out topicalization, focus, and clefting; and by illustrating that the wh-phrases in these languages can violate island configurations. An explanation for this optionality is provided by assuming that, in these languages, C can be optionally selected from the numeration. Interrogative Cs in Babine-Witsuwit'en are shown to motivate movement, but not affect interpretation. A separate typing phrase is shown to carry features which type the clause as interrogative or declarative and to mark scope. I then show how this proposal fits into a broader view of wh-movement by examining languages with wh-movement and languages without, as well as languages with multiple wh-movement. The examination of these diverse language types with and without optional wh-movement provides new insight into the role of wh-movement in general in a Minimalist theory of syntax.
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