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Locality in WH Quantification: Questions and Relative Clauses in Hindi

Author: Veneeta Dayal
Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, Kluwer Academic Publishers

This book argues that Logical Form, the level that mediates between syntax and semantics, is derives from S-structure by local movement. The primary data for the claim of loclaity at LF is drawn from Hindi but English data is used in discussing the semantics of questions and relative clauses. The book takes a cross-linguistic perspective showing how the Hindi and English facts can be brought to bear on the theory of universal grammar. Phenomena generally thought to involve long-distance dependencies at LF, such as scope marking, long-distance lists and correlatives, are handled by explicating novel types of local relationships that interrogative and relative clauses can enter into. A more articulated semantics is shown to lead to a simpler syntax. The book also takes a close look at the semantics of single and multiple wh constructions. It separates out plurality induced list answers from those dependent on a functional dependency among wh expressions.



Rajesh Bhatt
Tue Jan 21 17:38:40 EST 1997