Pseudo wh-fronting: a diagnosis of wh-constructions in Jordanian Arabic
| dc.contributor.author | Al-Daher, Zeyad | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Ghomeshi, Jila (Linguistics) Russell, Terry (Asian Studies) Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan (Language Studies, University of Toronto) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Oxford, Will (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-11-29T16:09:27Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-11-29T16:09:27Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016 | |
| dc.degree.discipline | Linguistics | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis provides an in-depth analysis of wh-question formation in Jordanian Arabic (JA) and presents a uniform approach that can accommodate all of its various wh-constructions. JA makes use of five different wh-constructions, four of which involve clause-initial wh-phrases and the fifth is a typical in-situ wh-construction. Although wh-phrases surface clause-initially in four different wh-constructions in JA, I propose that bona fide wh-movement to [Spec, CP] does not occur in any of these constructions, whether overtly in syntax or covertly at LF. I abandon the classification of JA as a wh-movement language (Abdel Razaq 2011) and focus instead on identifying the syntactic role that wh-phrases realize and the underlying structures that feed each wh-construction. I propose that the clause-initial position of the wh-phrase results either from the syntactic function that the wh-phrase serves or from other syntactic operations that are independently attested in JA. There are three clause-initial positions that the wh-phrase can occupy: it surfaces in [Spec, TP] when functioning as the subject of a verbal or verbless structure, in [Spec, TopP] when functioning as a clitic-left-dislocated element (as in CLLD questions and ʔilli-interrogatives involving PRON), or in [Spec, FocP] when undergoing focus fronting. Thus, all instances of clause-initial wh-phrases in JA constitute what I refer to as “pseudo wh-fronting”, as the clause-initial position of the wh-phrase arises from mechanisms other than canonical wh-movement to [Spec, CP]. To account for the interpretation of wh-phrases in JA, I adopt a binding approach in which a null interrogative morpheme (Baker 1970; Pesetsky 1987; Chomsky 1995) unselectively binds the wh-phrase regardless of its surface position, whether clause-initial or clause-internal (in-situ). A major implication of this analysis is that JA is a concealed wh-in-situ language of the Chinese type although it looks at a cursory glance as though it were a wh-movement language of the English type. A broader typological implication of my analysis is the convergence of Cheng’s (1991) Clausal Typing Hypothesis to which JA previously appeared to constitute a counterexample. The recognition of the null interrogative particle, or its optional overt realization as the Q-particle huwweh, as the locus of interrogative clause typing in all JA wh-questions entails that JA employs just one unique strategy to type a clause as a wh-question, as predicted by Cheng’s Clausal Typing Hypothesis, regardless of whether the wh-phrase surfaces clause-initially or clause-internally. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | February 2017 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/31940 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | Pseudo wh-fronting | en_US |
| dc.subject | Wh-question formation | en_US |
| dc.subject | Jordanian Arabic | en_US |
| dc.subject | In-situ wh-construction | en_US |
| dc.subject | Clitic-left-dislocation | en_US |
| dc.subject | Focus fronting | en_US |
| dc.subject | Unselective binding | en_US |
| dc.subject | Null interrogative particle | en_US |
| dc.subject | Q-particle | en_US |
| dc.subject | Concealed wh-in-situ | en_US |
| dc.subject | Syntactic analysis | en_US |
| dc.subject | Linguistics | en_US |
| dc.subject | Clausal typing hypothesis | en_US |
| dc.title | Pseudo wh-fronting: a diagnosis of wh-constructions in Jordanian Arabic | en_US |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | en_US |