Syntax, Semantics and Acquisition of Multiple Interrogatives

Who wants what?

Author
Lydia Grebenyova | Baylor University
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027255785 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027273369 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
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Multiple interrogatives, questions with multiple wh-phrases (e.g. Who bought what?), have long presented analytical challenges for linguistic theory. This monograph presents a new theoretical and experimental study of this construction. The theoretical findings concern the interaction between superiority effects, subject-auxiliary inversion, and the distribution of pair-list and single-pair readings cross-linguistically. The author examines multiple interrogatives under sluicing (i.e. clausal ellipsis), presenting new arguments for the deletion analysis of sluicing. The author also reports the results of several experimental studies on how children acquire the language-specific properties of multiple interrogatives in English, Russian, and Malayalam. The results suggest a correlation between the acquisition of multiple interrogatives and the acquisition of contrastive focus, which has been independently motivated in the syntactic literature. The monograph will be of interest to linguists concerned with syntax, semantics, and language acquisition, as well as readers who are interested in a comprehensive theory of language in general.
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 195] 2012.  xviii, 191 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“This book presents an insightful investigation of multiple interrogation, and gives a sophisticated Minimalist account of the cross-linguistic variation found with single-pair and pair-list answers to multiple wh-questions, as well as new arguments that sluicing involves unpronounced clausal structure, and important new data on the acquisition of such structures. It represents the fruitful intersection of theoretical questions with close empirical investigation of both adults' and children's grammars.”
“An illuminating account of the fascinating interactions between the syntactic and semantic properties of the multiple interrogative construction in a variety of languages, supported by meticulous investigation of its acquisition.”
“An important merit of this book is that a holistic view of a single linguistic construction –multiple interrogatives – is provided. That is to say, the construction is examined from the perspectives: syntax, semantics and acquisition. This is rarely done in a single study. It also makes this book an excellent resource for scholars who are simply looking for specialized discussions of Multiple Interrogatives.”
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Bondarenko, Tatiana & Colin Davis
2023. Concealed pied‐piping in Russian: On left‐branch extraction, parasitic gaps, and the nature of discontinuous nominal phrases. Syntax 26:1  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CFK: Grammar, syntax

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2012023461 | Marc record