Wh-questions in French and English: mapping syntax to information structure - Université d'Angers Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2008

Wh-questions in French and English: mapping syntax to information structure

Résumé

As opposed to English, French wh-questions can take a wide variety of forms. I identify four basic patterns: (a) wh- in situ: Vous êtes allés où?; (b) wh- raised, verb in situ: Où vous êtes allés?; (c) est-ce que insertion: Où est-ce que vous êtes allés?; (d) subject-clitic inversion: Où êtes-vous allés?, and argue that these are in fact 'allo-questions'. Based on a review of historical factors, as well as on recent corpus of studies, I show that each of the four question types corresponds to a distinct pragmatic function and compare French and English usage. Finally, wh- in situ constructions are formally analysed as a covert form of multiple wh-question, using an unselective binding mechanism.

Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-03382453 , version 1 (18-10-2021)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03382453 , version 1
  • OKINA : ua4657

Citer

Paul Boucher. Wh-questions in French and English: mapping syntax to information structure. Contrastive Information Structure Analysis, 2008, Université de Wuppertal, Allemagne. 306 - p. ⟨hal-03382453⟩

Collections

UNIV-ANGERS
13 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More