Revisiting the syntactic derivation of English split questions

Bibliographic Data

ID12059195
AuthorsWang Chengdong (Dalian University of Foreign Languages), Chengdong Wang (0009-0007-5032-8281, Dalian University of Foreign Languages and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies), Jinquan Han (Dalian University of Foreign Languages and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume40
Issue4
Pages475-491
Publication date2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Journal of Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0726-8602 • E-ISSN: 1469-2996
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07268602.2020.1845608
OpenAlexW3148551961
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

This article argues that an English split question consists of two parts, a wh-question and an it-cleft. The former serves as a topic and is located in [Spec, TopP] and the latter as a comment and is in the complement position of Top. In the first part, the wh-phrase moves from its base position within TP to [Spec, CP] for the purpose of typing the clause as WH-interrogative. The second part has an underlying structure of ‘Is it X that-clause’, where X is put into focus and receives a focus interpretation and the ‘that-clause’ expresses presupposition. In order to highlight the focused X of a cleft, the expletive it, the auxiliary be and the presupposition are all deleted at Phonetic Form, thus deriving a well-formed split question

Complement (music · Dependent clause · Focus (optics · Interpretation (philosophy · Interrogative · Interrogative word · Linguistics · Physics · Presupposition · Programming language · Sentence · Spec · Syntax · Word order · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation