MultipleWh‐Questions

Abstract

Abstract This study starts by highlighting the special role that multiplewh‐questions play in our understanding of the syntax‐semantics interface.Wh‐phrases require clausal scope under most semantic accounts but there is variation in whether this scope taking can be overt or covert. Multiplewh‐questions are important because they can provide evidence of these two possibilities within a single language. On the semantic side, the survey pays attention to differences between functional, single‐pair, and multiple‐pair answers, as well as to the role of number morphology onwh‐phrases. List answers have been particularly important as a diagnostic in claims regarding covertwh‐movement out of syntactic islands. The survey examines this issue from two perspectives, one involving covert movement and one disallowing such movement. It draws attention to the configuration dubbed thewh‐triangle and its central role in allowing list answers across islands. The two syntactic possibilities for scope taking have very different implications for semantics, which are explored here. Along with single and multiple pair answers, the survey also discusses the recently discovered trapped list answers. Another topic that is explored is the phenomenon of superiority and the role that D‐linking can play in ameliorating potential superiority violations. Intervention effects, where certain quantifiers block covert scope taking bywh‐phrases, are discussed. Various studies have tried to account for the attested cross‐linguistic variation in both superiority and intervention and in this study we look at several of them.

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