Speaker: Fangning Ren (University of Cambridge)
Title: Approaching Mandarin wh-topicalization/focalization: D-linking effect
Time: Tuesday, April 2nd, 1pm – 2pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract: This talk mainly provides two findings and the proposed analyses: (i) To form a content question, Mandarin ex-situ wh-nominals are invariably D-linked (Pesetsky 1987), whereas all wh-nominals can stay in situ regardless of their D-linking status; (ii) Mandarin wh-ex-situ creates both gapped dependencies and resumptive dependencies, with the former showing A’ diagnostics not the latter. Comparing three types of Mandarin wh-nominals: which-complexes, what-complexes and the what-simplex, I propose their varying degrees of D-linkability (in a morphosyntactic sense) are determined by their ability to realize the higher D head in a split-DP structure, which maps to the discourse (Roberts 2001, Guardiano 2012; Roberts 2017). In terms of the syntactic nature of the two dependencies created by Mandarin wh-nominal reordering, I argue that the resumptive one involves a base-generated wh-hanging-topic that introduces a null copular construction containing a reduced co-varying restrictive-relative head (Safir 1986, Kallulli 2012), whereas the gapped one involves wh-focus-movement. This is corroborated by the asymmetry they show in terms of parasitic-gap licensing, CNPC sensitivity, and the WCO effect.