Aspects of Bulgarian Syntax: Complementizers and WH Constructions

Chapter 4: WH Movement: Questions

Chapter 4 WH Movement: Questions In recent years a great deal of attention within generative grammar has been focused on “WH Movement” constructions, a category which includes constituent questions, relative clauses, and according to some analyses (Chomsky 1977 is the earliest) also comparatives, clefts, topicalization structures, and perhaps object deletion, tough movement, and other structures as well. Considerable controversy has been generated over whether these constructions are all actually related or not, and, for whichever of them do involve WH Movement, exactly how it works, whether as bounded (successive cyclic, COMP-to-COMP) movement, as unbounded movement, or perhaps not as movement at all, but simply binding of a gap by a base generated WH element. What position WH words occupy (COMP or not?) is another hotly debated question. In this chapter I examine one of the major WH constructions—questions—in Bulgarian, and conclude that an unbounded WH Movement rule which places WH words in COMP is best suited to the Bulgarian facts. 4.1. Some Basic Data There are two types of questions: yes–no questions, which in Bulgarian usually contain either the interrogative complementizer dali or the question particle li, both discussed in chapter 3 (yes–no questions can also be signaled by intonation alone, but this is much less common), and constituent questions, which contain an interrogative WH word.1 These two types are, for the most part, entirely separate and non-overlapping , although under certain restricted circumstances both a WH word and the question particle or complementizer can be found together in a single clause. I will be concerned only with WH questions in this chapter, except where WH interacts with dali/li questions in some way. The first thing to notice about WH questions is that the WH word or phrase is always fronted, in both matrix and embedded questions. A sentence containing a WH word in other than S′-initial position is acceptable as an “echo” question but not as a “real”, “normal” question; I use the symbol # to mark echo status. 1 For a full list of the WH words of Bulgarian, see chapter 1. 88 ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN SYNTAX (1) a. Kogo si vidjal? whom AUX2SG saw ‘Who did you see?’ b. Ne znam kogo si vidjal NEG know1SG whom AUX2SG saw ‘I don’t know who saw you.’ c. #Ti si vidjal kogo? #you AUX2SG saw whom ‘You saw who?’ d. #Kazvaš če si vidjal kogo? #say2SG that AUX2SG saw whom ‘You say you saw who?’ If there is more than one WH word in a clause, they all must front. Just as in single WH questions, if any WH words fail to front, the sentence is interpretable only as an echo. (2) a. Koj kogo e vidjal? who whom AUX3SG saw ‘Who saw who?’ b. Ne znam koj kogo e vidjal. NEG know1SG who whom AUX3SG saw ‘I don’t know who saw who.’ c. #Koj e vidjal kogo? #who AUX3SG saw whom ‘Who saw who?’ d. #Kazvaš če koj e vidjal kogo? #say2SG that who AUX3SG saw whom ‘You say that who saw who?’ WH words can be extracted from an embedded clause; that is, a clause-initial WH word can be construed as linked to a “gap” in an indefinitely deeply embedded clause. This is true for multiple as well as single WH words. WH MOVEMENT: QUESTIONS 89 (3) a. Kogo misliš če e vidjal? whom think2SG that AUX3SG saw ‘Who do you think he saw?’ b. Koj kogo misliš če e vidjal? who whom think2SG that AUX3SG saw ‘Who do you think saw who?’ And here too the WH word(s) must be S′-initial in order to produce a normal question ; if the WH word in a question like (3a) or any one of the WH words in a multiple question like (3b) fails to front, the result is interpretable, if at all, only as an echo: (4) a. #Misliš če e vidjal kogo? #think2SG that AUX3SG saw whom ‘You think that he saw who?’ b. #Misliš če koj e vidjal kogo? #think2SG that who AUX3SG saw whom ‘You think that who saw who?’ c. #Koj misliš če e vidjal kogo? #who think2SG that AUX3SG saw whom ‘Who do you think saw who?’ Any analysis of Bulgarian WH questions must then minimally account for the fact that all WH words in true questions are fronted, specify exactly what “fronted” means, that is, what...