The Syntax of the Finnish Question Particle

Abstract

Finnish forms yes-no questions by adjoining the enclitic particle -ko to the first constituent in the sentence. If the question narrowly focuses on some constituent in the sentence, that constituent is fronted, and the clitic is attached to it. A common assumption in such cases is that the clitic is a C element and the focus moves to its left. However, a more careful investigation of the distribution of focus, and a comparison with the focus particle -kin, shows that such an analysis is untenable. Instead, -ko is merged with a maximal phrase KP, triggering movement of a Focused subconstituent of KP to the specifier of the -ko-phrase, before movement of the whole constituent to specCP.

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