Wh-agreement in Ojibwe relative clauses: Evidence for CP Structure

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the morphological and syntactic structure of relative clauses in Ojibwe (Algonquian), in particular their status aswh-constructions. Relatives in this language are full clauses that bear special morphology, show evidence of A′-movement of awh-operator, and consequently exhibitwh-agreement also found in interrogatives and certain types of focus constructions. Ojibwe shows the possibility ofwh-agreement realized on T (in addition to C andvfor other languages), as it appears on tense prefixes. We account for the realization ofwh-agreement on T in Ojibwe via the mechanism of feature inheritance. We propose that while declarative matrix clauses are canonical in that C introducesφ-features in Ojibwe, the role of C in embedded orwh-contexts is to introduceδ-features (discourse features), such as [uwh], rather thanφ-features. Theseδ-features can be introduced by C, but are transferred down to T where they spell out aswh-agreement.

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