Rhetorical Questions and Wh- Movement

1 Observations

Rhetorical questions (RQs) have the syntactic form of a question but the semantic value of a declarative (Sadock 1971, Han 2002). In general, the meaning of RQs can be obtained by replacing the wh-word¹ with the appropriate negative quantifier (1a) or, in the case of polar questions, by adding negation (1b).

(1)

1. a. After all, what does John know?
   "John knows nothing."

2. b.

   After all, does John ever help?
   "John doesn't ever help."

Despite the semantic difference, RQs appear to be identical to interrogative questions (IQs) with respect to syntactic behavior (at least in English): the wh-word moves to sentence-initial position, induces subject-auxiliary inversion, and displays island effects.

(2)

1. a. After all, what did he tdid buy _twhat?

2. b. *After all, what did he t_did meet [_RC the man who bought t_what]?

This squib addresses three additional syntactic observations about RQs across several languages, and their consequences for theories of wh-movement.

Observation 1

Some languages allow multiple wh-words in a single rhetorical question, while others only allow a single wh-word.

Much as with multiple wh-words in IQs, only certain languages allow multiple wh-words in RQs (illustrated here with the contrast between Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, on the one hand, and English, on the other).

(3)

1. a. Chinese
   Shei hui dai shenme lai bisai      ne?
   who will bring what   to competition Q
   'Who will bring what to the competition?'
   "Nobody would bring anything to the competition."

2. b. Japanese
   Dare-ga  nani-o   paatii-ni mottekita-to iu-no?
   who-NOM what-ACC party-to bring-COMP saying-Q
   'After all, who will bring what to the party?'
   "Nobody will bring anything to the party."

3. c. Russian
   V principe, kto prineset  čto  na tvoju večerinku?
   after all   who will.bring what to your party
   'After all, who will bring what to your party?'
   "Nobody will bring anything to your party."

4. d. English
   *After all, who would bring what to the party?

To date, I have observed RQs with multiple wh-words (MRQs) in Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, and to some extent Bulgarian. MRQs are not possible in Egyptian Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, although Egyptian Arabic and Italian also disallow multiple IQs.

Crucially, there is no obvious correlation between multiple wh-words in IQs and multiple wh-words in RQs, although it does seem that the existence of multiple wh-words in IQs in a language is necessary, but not sufficient, for the existence of multiple wh-words in RQs (i.e., Egyptian Arabic and Italian lack both multiple IQs and MRQs). Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between types of wh-movement and the possibility of MRQs: Chinese and Japanese are in-situ languages, Russian is a multiple wh-fronting language, and Hindi has a mixed system with both overt wh-movement and wh-in-situ.

Observation 2

Wh-arguments in languages without overt wh-movement show island effects in rhetorical questions.

Huang (1982) and others have demonstrated that languages without overt wh-movement do indeed display island effects, although these effects occur only with wh-adjuncts, not with wh-arguments. In RQs in these languages, all wh-words show island effects, regardless of whether they are arguments or adjuncts (illustrated here with Japanese; (4a) shows an island violation with an argument, (4b) shows an island violation with an adjunct, and (4c) demonstrates that the effects in (4a) and (4b) are not simply long-distance effects).

(4)

1. a. *[_IP    John-wa [_Adj kare-no okusan-ga nani-o   katta
   John-TOP    he-GEN wife-NOM what-ACC bought
   kara]   okoru-to      iu-no]?
   because get.angry-COMP saying-Q
   'What would John get angry because his wife bought?'
   "There is nothing such that John would get angry because
   his wife bought that thing."

2. b. *[_IP John-wa [_Adj kare-no okusan-ga naze atarasii
      John-TOP    he-GEN wife-NOM why new
   doresu-o katta   kara]   okoru-to      iu-no]?
   dress-ACC bought because get.angry-COMP saying-Q
   'Why would John get angry because his...