tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Dec 02 10:17:16 1996
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RE: Embedded wh-questions
- From: "d'Armond Speers" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: Embedded wh-questions
- Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 13:19:00 -0500
- Encoding: 34 TEXT
On Monday, December 02, 1996 1:01 PM, d'Armond
Speers[SMTP:[email protected]] wrote:
> There's a question that's been gnawing at me for a while...
Sorry, I hit 'send' by accident. Happens to the best of us.
I'm wondering whether wh-elements 'in situ' (in their base position, as
they are in Klingon) can be interpreted at the matrix level, like the ones
that move in English.
English has another quirky bit of behavior, in that some syntactic
structures prevent wh-elements from moving to the matrix clause.
I wonder who John likes.
Who do you wonder whether John likes?
I wonder who likes Mary.
* Who do you wonder whether likes Mary?
Since wh-elements don't raise in Klingon, they remain 'in situ', we don't
have such extraction effects. For instance,
*Mary* parHa' 'Iv 'e' vISIv.
'Iv parHa' *John* 'e' vISIv.
To my ear, though these are syntactically correct, they sound like
gibberish. Again, my mind has a hard time raising the scope of the
question to the matrix level.
Maybe it's sleep deprivation, as I prepare for my exams. Ugh.
--Holtej
Stardate 96922.01