MSU Colloquium Series: Acrisio Pires
The (MSU) Linguistics Department Colloquium Series 2007
Dr. Acrisio Pires
University of Michigan
Thursday, September 27th
4:30 PM in Wells 607
The Syntax of Wh-in-situ and Common Ground
In this talk I will present the results of collaborative work showing that single-question wh-in-situ occurs in English under specific discourse-pragmatics (1)-(2). I will argue these questions are possible only when the information being requested is part of the Common Ground (CG) (Stalnaker 1978). The same analysis constrains wh-in-situ in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) (1c)-(2c), restricting the optionality of wh-in-situ. It will then be proposed that both languages display a [+wh] complementizer that does not trigger wh-movement. This is supported by the fact that wh-in-situ in both languages is not subject to the same locality conditions associated with wh-in- situ in a language such as French, and is also not an instance of head-movement.
(1) a. A: I made desserts.
b. B: You made what kind of desserts?
c. B: Você fez que tipo de sobremesa?
(2) a. B. Attorney: Tell me what happened on January 1, 2005 at 4 pm
A. Defendant: I was driving along Andrews Avenue.
b. B. Attorney: And the police officer said you were traveling about how fast?
c. B: E o policial disse que você estava dirigindo em que velocidade?