Agenda

The periphery of vP in the theory of wh-in situ
Caterina Bonan (University of Cambridge)

In this talk, I propose an implementation of Cable’s (2010) Grammar of Q that takes into account the role played by the periphery of vP in the derivation of wh-interrogatives, hitherto unexplored. Empirically, what I offer is a new example, in a new language family, of a known manifestation of wh-in situ: I indeed argue that eastern Trevisan, a northern Italian variety, displays compulsory clause-internal focus movement of both wh-elements and contrastive foci. Theoretically, I use the Trevisan data to present a new, tweaked application of previously proposed approaches whereby wh-elements do not contribute to clause-typing, and Q-particles are cross-linguistically needed in the computation of answer-seeking wh-questions. My claim is that wh-in situ languages are characterised not only by language-specific choices between projection and adjunction of Q, and overt vs covert movement of Q, but also in terms of the loci where the features relevant to wh-questions, [q] and [focus], are checked: while some languages check both in C (‘feature bundling’), others make use of the clause-internal vP periphery to check [focus] (‘feature scattering’).
 
Caterina Bonan has a PhD in General Linguistics from the University of Geneva, with a dissertation on the morphosyntax of northern Italian wh-questions. She is at present a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, where she works with Adam Ledgeway. Her research at Cambridge encompasses a redefinition of the structure of Romance interrogative it-clefts, and an implementation of her theory of wh-in situ.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://unive.zoom.us/j/87511853483
 
Organizer: Giuliana Giusti giusti@unive.it