2017_Subject Clitics and (Complex) Inversion

2017_Subject Clitics and (Complex) Inversion
File Size:
1.13 MB
Author:
Pollock, Jean-Yves & Poletto, Cecilia
Date:
24. Sep 2017

1 On the syntax of questions in French: As has often been noted in the generative literature over the last 30 years (see e.g. Kayne 1972; 1975; and their references), the syntax of yes/no and wh-questions in Modern French is bafflingly rich; whereas “well-behaved” languages like English treat their subjects, auxiliary verbs, and wh-phrases in all question types in a uniform fashion, as (1) shows, French has a much more intricate system that distinguishes syntactically pronominal subjects and non-pronominal subjects (cf. (2) vs. (4)), wh-questions and yes/no questions (cf. (3) vs. (4)), and different types of wh-words (cf. (5) vs. (6))

 
 
 
 
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