Wh-fronting and the left periphery in Mandarin

Abstract

This article explores the semantic and syntactic properties of wh-fronting constructions as well as the fine structure of the left periphery in Mandarin along the lines of the cartographic approach. It is discovered that wh-fronting constructions exhibit two salient properties associated with Identificational Focus (IdentF), namely, (i) exhaustive identification and (ii) the ability to occupy a scopal position, suggesting that wh-fronting is best analyzed as a strategy for licensing IdentF. It is proposed that two derivational mechanisms are in principle available to wh-fronting constructions: the wh-phrase is either derived by movement to Spec-FocP, or it may resort to a base-generation strategy when the wh-phrase is linked to an empty pronoun or a resumptive pronoun inside an island. It is argued that previous analyses that treat wh-fronting constructions as a type of topic structure cannot account for their different morphological and semantic properties. This view is further corroborated by an investigation of the topography of Topics and Foci in the left periphery, which shows that IdentF occupies a dedicated syntactic position distinct from that of the types of Topics available in Mandarin. The investigation also reveals that Focus constitutes an independent field that is situated below the Topic field.

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