Why is ‘Why’ Unique?: Its Syntactic and Semantic Properties (Studies in Generative Grammar [SGG], 142) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 311125870X ISBN 13: 9783111258706

Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton, 2023

Synopsis

Why is ‘Why’ Unique? Its Syntactic and Semantic Properties considers the behaviour of this peculiar wh-element across many different languages, including Ewe, Trevisan, Italian, Basque, German, Dutch, Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Hebrew. In ten original chapters, the authors explore various aspects of why-questions, such as the way why interacts with V2 constructions in Basque, with a subject clitic in Trevisan or how its morpho-syntactic make-up determines its merge position in Ewe, to mention but a few. Furthermore, a clear-cut distinction is established between high and low reason adverbials which are subsequently examined in why-stripping environments in Dutch.

Beyond why proper, the book explores a special class of wh-expressions in some in-situ languages which give rise to unexpected why-construals with a touch of whining force. The objective is to explain the unusual syntactic position of these wh-expressions as well as their association with peculiar pragmatics. The questions are addressed for Cantonese: are what-initial sentences genuine questions? To what extent are Cantonese what-initial sentences similar to how-initial sentences in Mandarin? Beside these what-as-why questions, a special class of rhetorical questions, the doubly-marked interrogatives in Hebrew, come under scrutiny.

Why is ‘why’ unique also concerns the interface with prosody and several experimental studies investigate precisely this aspect.

About this title

About the Author

Gabriela Soare, Université de Genève, Switzerland.

From the Back Cover

This book considers the behaviour of why across many different languages, including Ewe, Trevisan, Italian, Basque, German, Dutch, Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Hebrew. Ten original chapters explore various aspects, such as the way why interacts with V2 constructions in Basque, subject clitics in Trevisan, how its morpho-syntactic make-up determines its merge position in Ewe, or how high and low reason adverbials interact with why-stripping in Dutch.

Beyond why proper, the book explores a special class of wh-expressions in some in-situ languages which lead to unexpected why-construals with a touch of whining force. The objective is to explain their unusual syntactic positions and their association with peculiar pragmatics.

Edition details

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 311125870X
• ISBN 13: 9783111258706
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324
• Editor: Soare Gabriela