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Part of
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2018: Selected papers from 'Going Romance' 32, Utrecht
Edited by Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen and Luisa Meroni
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 357] 2021
► pp. 97–116

Chapter 5
The structure and interpretation of ‘non-matching’ split interrogatives in Spanish

| Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

The goal of this paper is to analyze the properties of (a special type of) ‘split interrogative’ (SI) constructions in Spanish. SIs are wh-questions followed by a phrase that constitutes a possible answer, the ‘tag’. The overall structure is interpreted as a yes/no question (as in what did John bring, a book?). In standard cases, the tag matches the (case and thematic) features of the wh-element. Nevertheless, in (spoken Peninsular) Spanish what I will call ‘Non-matching Split Interrogatives’ (NMSI) are also possible. In these cases, the wh-element and the XP in the tag may not match; instead, it is the dummy (neuter) qué “what” that heads the wh-clause. I investigate these cases and propose a (biclausal) analysis involving an ellipsis process similar to the one taking place in fragments (Merchant 2004). To support this hypothesis, I focus on a the fact that: in NMSI there is a form-meaning mismatch that, to my knowledge, has gone unnoticed both in theoretical and descriptive studies.

Keywords: split interrogatives, focus, Spanish, neuter qué, ellipsis, fragment answers, scope marker
Article outline
  • 1.Split interrogatives
  • 2.Non matching split interrogatives
    • 2.1Properties
    • 2.2The structure of NMSI. Monoclausal analyses
  • 3.A biclausal analysis for NMSI. Ellipsis and ‘extended’ reading
    • 3.1Properties of NMSI
    • 3.2The interpretation of NMSI
    • 3.3Non matching pseudocleft constructions and ‘extended’ interpretation
  • 4.Reconstruction: Constraints on movement and idioms
  • 5.Ellipsis: NMSI and fragment answers
  • 6.Ellipsis in (Right) dislocation structures
  • 7.The non-matching property: The neuter qué and Scope Markers
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.357.05fer
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