Focus in wh-questions

Abstract

This paper addresses two long-standing issues concerning focus: first, the question of whether the focal interpretation is directly read off the prosodic structure of a sentence, or it is rather mediated by a [focus] feature encoded in the syntactic representation; second, whether interrogative wh-phrases are inherently endowed with a [focus] feature. We provide evidence from two prosodic experiments on direct wh-questions in Italian, showing that the Nuclear Pitch Accent (NPA) and main stress fall on the lexical verb, without a concomitant focal interpretation of the latter. Furthermore, we show that NPA assignment is sensitive to the derivational history of the wh-phrase under short-distance vs. long-distance extraction. We account for the observed NPA distribution in terms of a [focus] feature which is bundled with the [wh] in direct questions, and is specified on each phase head that hosts in its edge one link of the wh-chain. Thus, v°is specified for the feature bundle {wh, focus} and attracts the assignment of the NPA, which is then realized on the lexical verb. Our findings, thus, cast doubt on the direct association between prosodic prominence and a focal interpretation.

From northern Italian to Asian wh-in situ: A theory of low focus movement

“…involved in the derivation of eastern Trevisan total fronting, i.e., is WH-TO-FOC what has been referred to as successive-cyclic movement through the edge of the vP phase (Chomsky 1973;? The cyclicity of wh-movement has been argued for in works on wh-agreement, interrogative inversion/prosodic phenomena, and pronunciation of intermediate copies (Torrego 1984, McDaniel 19861989, McCloskey 2001, Willis 2000, van Urk & Richards 2015, Bocci et al 2020. While phase theory teaches us that anything that goes to the HLP must stop at vP, my discussion suggests that this intermediate 'stop' can take place at different heights: in SpecvP for some languages, in FocP in languages like eastern Trevisan.…”

On some special properties of why in syntax and prosody

“…This is true of bare whquestions with short distance wh-movement where the wh-element is an argument of the matrix verb (15a), which bears the NPA. In cases of long distance wh-movement where the wh-word is extracted from an embedded clause (15b), the embedded verb bears the NPA (see Calabrese 1982, Ladd 1996, Marotta 2001, 2002, Bocci, Bianchi & Cruschina 2020.…”

“…( Bocci, Bianchi & Cruschina (2020) propose to link the NPA-assignment in Italian wh-questions to the successive cyclic nature of wh-movement. Wh-movement must pass through the edge of every vP and CP phase between the base-generation position and the final landing site in the left periphery of the sentence.…”

“…For subject inversion in why-questions, we will rely on the studies by Bocci & Pozzan (2014) and Bianchi, Bocci & Cruschina (2017), where the position of the subject in why-questions is tested also against information-structure conditions. As for prominence distribution in wh-questions, our starting point will be the experimental findings discussed in Bocci, Bianchi & Cruschina (2020) on wh-questions introduced by bare wh-elements other than why. We will then present the results of our own experiment specifically aimed at testing prominence distribution in whyquestions as opposed to other types of wh-questions.…”

“…Prosodically, why-questions are different from questions with other wh-elements. Bocci, Bianchi & Cruschina (2020) show that in wh-questions, with wh-elements other than why, the NPA is always assigned, in Italian, to the lexical verb and never to the wh-element itself (see also Marotta 2001). This somehow unexpected property is taken to be a reflex of the derivational history of the wh-element, in that in Italian the main prominence (i.e.…”